TORONTO — Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi had never been in a movie theatre, let alone walked a red carpet lined with screaming fans and acclaimed stars, before watching her life portrayed in “Queen of Katwe” at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

“I never dreamt of something of this kind,” she said in an interview at the fest, where the film made its world premiere.

“It was a big audience, which I’d never expected…. It was so huge for me. 

“I was panicking at first when I saw it. Everyone was screaming my name.”

In theatres across the country on Friday, Disney’s “Queen of Katwe” portrays Mutesi’s inspiring life from the slums of Kampala to the top ranks of the chess world. It was shot in Uganda and South Africa.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Mutesi said of seeing her story on the big screen.

“The movie was so emotional, I had to shed tears … and it was just drawing me back to everything. I felt like everything was true. I felt like it was me.”

Kampala native Madina Nalwanga plays Mutesi as a teen alongside Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o of “12 Years a Slave” as her mother, Harriet, a strong-willed widow who sells corn.

“I was attracted to this film because I really believe when they say you belong where you believe you belong,” said Nyong’o.

“This girl, despite her very hard circumstances, has become a pride to her nation and it is because someone believed in her and allowed her to learn to believe in herself. She has to come to a place where she has to surrender to the things she doesn’t know and take a chance.

“So I hope this is inspiring to those people who have been jaded, who have been dealt a hard card in life, to still have some faith.”

David Oyelowo of “Selma” fame plays Mutesi’s mentor, Robert Katende, who runs a chess program for Katwe children from a makeshift church.

“He is a very bright guy who could have gone on to be an engineer but chose not to do that in order to give these children what he didn’t have, because he was an orphan himself, grew up in a time of political unrest in Uganda,” said Oyelowo. 

“Because he is an ordinary man who is doing this extraordinary thing, my hope is that people will watch this film and run with his example.”

Like Mutesi, Katende said he also got emotional over the project: “I got an opportunity to be on every set and there were some scenes that would definitely trigger me into tears.”

Mira Nair, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated “Salaam Bombay!” who has lived in Kampala for nearly 30 years, directed the screenplay by William Wheeler.

Nair said she hopes the “100 per cent African film” — which she insisted Disney did not “sanitize” — will convey authenticity, humanity, hope and relatability.

“I think it’s very important that it’s not a simple black versus white issue or an outsider saviour who comes to help the people of the Dark Continent,” she said.

“We always see the beastiality and the beheadings and the child soldiers and that kind of level. We’ve never seen everyday dignity, everyday joy, everyday struggle.”

Despite her new brush with film fame, 20-year-old Mutesi is keeping grounded in her studies.

In November she’s set to graduate from high school and she plans to attend university to study law and give back to her community.

“I want to fight for the freedom of the kids, the rights of the kids,” she said, “because when you look at the slum, there isn’t anyone who’s ready to do that.”

Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press