Lupita Nyong’o and Vogue celebrate her Kenyan home

“Queen of Katwe” is the true story of chess extraordinaire Phiona Mutesi, who came from a modest background in Katwe, Uganda.

Golden Globe nominee, David Oweyolo (“Selma”) and Oscar victor Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years A Slave”) star in the Disney movie.

Yesterday, she headed to Hollywood for the premiere of Disney’s Queen of Katwe, a girl-power filled book-turned-movie, and, wow.

Now, as I write her words, I am excited by a singular thought: Now what? She also gets the most out of her mostly nonprofessional African cast, not to mention her two stars, Oyelowo and Nyong’o.

“For Harriet, dreaming was the risky enemy because of the cards life had dealt her”, Nyong’o says. “She is so committed to telling the story, and so honest”. Though some of their movies carry an emotionally serious tone, Queen of Katwe touches on topics applicable to few Western viewers and challenges younger audiences to engage with a non-traditional, non-fairytale-like narrative.

Phiona and her family live in the slums of Katwe, selling maize to make ends meet.

So. did Nyong’o have an Oscar in hers?

Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe is a true-life tale transformed into an inspirational fable. After Phiona’s first match victory at the Olympiad, she joyously sprinted out of the venue, and I concluded the article with the following: “This dismissedgirl from a dismissed world cocks her head back and unleashes a blissful shriek into the slate gray sky, loud enough to startle players still inside the arena”.

“I spent a lot of time denying the fact that I wanted to be an actor, and I felt I could bring this to the film”, Nyong’o says.

She knows what she’s talking about. And then she wears it again to sell it, and you see not just her courage but also, because she is with a man she knew before she was married, you see her as something other than a mother.

Phiona is so gifted at the strategy of the game that she quickly evolves past beating the boys in her group and even at the local school tournaments, where the slum kids stand out among the formal, uniformed students. Nyong’o has been a Nair friend since 2007 when she was as an intern at the filmmaker’s NY production company. She speaks slowly and with emphasis, her posture flawless and her hands clasped in her lap.

Based on real-life events, the film chronicles the inspiring story of an underdog from the streets of rural Uganda. Nyong’o, though, would like to see more stories like “Queen of Katwe” make it to movie screens. Mutesi dreams one day of opening a free clinic in Katwe to help the people where she came from.