Inevitable comparisons with Once Were Warriors do this gripping New Zealand drama few favours. Based on the life of Maori speed-chess coach and player Genesis Potini (the subject of a 2003 documentary by co-producer Jim Marbrook), James Napier Robertson’s muscular, visceral film arguably has more in common with Gillies MacKinnon’s British drama The Grass Arena (from John Healy’s autobiography) than it does with Lee Tamahori’s breakout NZ hit.
Like Healy, “Gen” is a streetwise soul whose preternatural understanding of chess seems intertwined with a streak of outcast “madness” (a duality addressed head-on in Liz Garbus’s brilliant Bobby Fischer Against the World). Driven by the twin desires to honour his heritage and to make chess more accessible and democratic, Gen battles his bipolar demons to become involved in Gisborne’s Eastern Knights chess club, leading a disparate group of underprivileged kids to a national tournament in Auckland for a set piece as rousing as anything from Rocky.
At the centre of it is Cliff Curtis, best known internationally for his supporting role in Whale Rider, who dominates the screen as the mercurial Gen. It’s a breathtaking performance, note perfect in every gesture, mesmerising in its conviction. Top marks, too, to rising star James Rolleston as teenager Mana, for whom the widening horizons of chess are overshadowed by the prospect of straitjacketing initiation into local gang the Vagrants.
