Among other topics, this new blog features recommendations and reviews from our popular culture. And I will be posting a couple favorites from 2021 in the next few days.
My favorite movie of the year was one I watched about a day ago as I was flying on Qatar Airways over the Indian Ocean. It's a movie from 2016 called Queen of Katwe. It's about a poor Ugandan girl whose family has suffered terrible setbacks. A local coach has started a youth club in the community devoted to chess and the girl (named Phiona) takes an interest.
The movie chronicles her development into a chess prodigy, while enduring her family's poverty and misfortune. It's a heartwarming and inspiring movie, laced with humanity and humor. Yet besides being positive, it also addresses the issues of classism, sexism, and elitism that plague, not only Uganda, but the entire world. It's not only a story of a chess prodigy, it's also a tribute to Phiona's mother, Harriet, and her extraordinary efforts as a single parent to keep her family intact. I highly recommend this movie and don't miss the last scene of the movie, in the credits, where each actor meets their real-world counterparts upon whom this movie is based. It's an incredibly cool merger of reality and the world of cinema.
In 2021, I also loved The Queen's Gambit, a Netflix series about another girl and how chess becomes a vehicle for her to overcome the misery in her life. While both are fantastic and worth watching, Queen of Katwe brought tears to my eyes and is a movie that is so full of heart and humanity, it is just a small notch more special, in my estimation. But, please, if you haven't, try to watch them both.
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