I used to be a chronic movie lover, there was a time when I usually stayed up at midnight just to see and tick on the list of movies I wanted to see but as time passed, I started losing this interest in movies because of how many of them usually turn out. I wish I could return to the days when I always enjoyed movies without thinking about how it would end.
Over the weekend, I joined my fiancee to see some movies and the same thing that turns me off with movies happened, I was able to predict the concluding part of the movie before seeing even half of each. This habit discourages me from seeing a movie but not all genres because when it comes to action movies, I do not care about how they end. I just want to see the fight, shooting, stunts and a superb storyline would just be a bonus for me.
Aside from predicting movie ends correctly, I am one of those who can't help but shed tears when watching an emotional movie and this is one reason why my immediate brother barely watches a movie with me. He complains a lot and wouldn't stop saying that only women cry while seeing a movie. I guess it happens that way because I always invest my feelings in awesome movies.
Regardless of how I feel after figuring out how these movies would end, there are still lots of great movies that I can connect to beyond the screen, cast and even storyline. One of them is Queen Of Katwe, an African movie that made me cry and also left a mark on my heart.
The story was produced back in 2016 and I saw it not up to a year later because ever since I saw the trailer, I couldn't wait to see how Phiona rose from the slum to change not just her life but that of her family as well.
The movie starts with an unpleasant scene where people queued to fetch dirty water, the environment was nothing to write about and it is clear that the people of Katwe lived in an advanced kind of poverty.
They battled with diseases, hard drug was flowing on the street, young girls were into prostitution and lots of terrible things were happening in Katwe but despite all of these, a beautiful flower grew in the slum.
Queen Of Katwe is a true life story of an African child (Phiona Mutesi) who saw chess as a way of escaping from the terrible place where life puts her after meeting a chess coach and she took it seriously alongside many other kids in the slum.
She encountered lots of challenges with her coach, there was zero support from the family because she had to hawk with her brother just to support her mother and her elder sister who could have lifted the weight of responsibility off her shoulders got an unwanted pregnancy, she couldn't even take care herself not to speak of supporting the family.
She started from scratch and went on to compete internationally with the help of her coach. Phiona dominated the chess world and she became famous in the whole of Katwe.
I found the movie quite inspiring and didn't hesitate to share it with my brothers and even with teenagers in my environment back then because no one could see the movie and not learn something valuable from it. In the movie, Phiona had different options to choose from. She could have ventured into drugs or prostitution, and she could have become a teenage mother as well but she chose to be different and it paid off.
The fact that "Queen Of Katwe" is a true life story made the movie hit me differently. It's not like someone just thought about the story and put it out there, it truly happened and that's a message of hope to many people in Phiona's condition around the world.
It's sad to know that many African nations are in a complete mess despite how rich and blessed we are. It's so messed up that a lot of kids do not see a future for themselves and the fact that African children are still putting themselves out there even without the help of the government is a huge deal for me and as long as we do not settle for less, we will definitely get the best out of life.
If you haven't seen "Queen Of Katwe", I recommend it and can assure you that you won't regret the time spent on the movie.
All Images are screenshot from the movie
Thanks for reading.