Kenyan actress, Lupita Nyong’o has recently been announced as the star of Disney’s new, upcoming movie Queen of Katwe, about a Ugandan chess prodigy.
Centred on the story of Phiona Mutesi (the protagonist in Tim Crothers’ book The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster), the live-action film was shot in Uganda, South Africa and sees Lupita playing the role of mother to Phiona, opposite Selma star David Oyelowo (Phiona’s chess coach).
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Lupita told press of the film;
“It was so great to go back home. I’m from East Africa. I’m from Kenya, which is just next door to Uganda.
The slum of Katwe is a very difficult place to live, but you see these people living there with dignity and making it day by day. And so to go there and to have that environment to work from really did sober us and enliven us.”
Team SPICE can’t wait to catch Disney’s Queen of Katwe when it launches in September 2016, but for now, take a look at Lupita Nyong’o in the trailer for the movie below.
Video & image source: Indiewire.com, Youtube.com
