I love any story about people who make something from what appears to be nothing."
Nair was captivated by the story, stating, "I have always been surrounded by these local stories but hadn’t done anything in Uganda since 1991. With executive approval from studio president Sean Bailey, Nagenda went to visit Mira Nair at her Ugandan home to recruit her to direct a film about Mutesi. Tendo Nagenda, Walt Disney Studios' senior creative executive, developed the project into production. Published by ESPN in 2012, it was optioned that same year by Walt Disney Pictures. Tim Crothers wrote The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster, which chronicled Phiona Mutesi's life.
If you want to take your kids to an uplifting and quietly feminist sports movie that will also give them a glimpse of a part of the planet that too often gets presented as a vale of tears worthy only of the Western world’s condescending pity, you ought to show them Queen of Katwe. But you know what? The existence of a female teenage chess champion who grew up in a Ugandan slum legitimately is something to feel good about. You might justly accuse Queen of Katwe of glossing over some of the uglier facts of African poverty in the service of a feel-good narrative about hard work and believing in your dreams-there’s no mention, for example, of the fact the real-life Phiona lost her father to AIDS at age 3.