Long live the Queen: a sober, heart-warming story

SCREEN GRABS: Stills from the film.

The film was the final cinematic treat related to one of the year’s biggest exhibitions that will draw to a close on June 21, writes Anand Holla

On watching the Dutch fairy tale Long live the Queen, the central theme of a chess game coming to life can be instantly related to the other popular fantasy movie where a board game springs to life – Jumanji.

While the Robin Williams-starrer about a supernatural board game that unleashes jungle animals into the city upon each player’s move was an over-the-top Hollywood extravaganza, Long live the Queen (Lang leve de koningin being the original Dutch title) is a much sober, heart-warming story. Bizarrely enough, both films were released in 1995.

As part of the Museum of Islamic Art’s exhibition series organised by Doha Film Institute, the film was screened at the museum’s auditorium on Friday afternoon and evening. The event was special in how it was the final cinematic treat related to one of the year’s biggest exhibitions in Qatar – Kings and Pawns: Board Games from India to Spain – that will draw to a close on June 21.

Long live the Queen is the story of young girl Sara (played by the adorable Tiba Tossijn) who learns to play chess and also happens to find her father, whom she misses a lot. That’s because Sara lives with her single mother and her grandfather, having only a photograph of her father for company. Her father Bob Hooke happens to be a national chess champion.

One day, Sara sees Hooke’s interview on TV, and it rings a bell. That her mother turns the TV off doesn’t help. Her grandfather is reading a newspaper in which there’s a story on Hooke’s exploits in the game. As Sara compares the photo in the newspaper with the photograph she has, she is convinced about what she suspected.

The adventure takes off when her friend Victor introduces her to the world of chess by showing off a cool board with cooler chess pieces at his father’s knickknack store. In her first look at the board she finds the Queen piece turning around and smiling at her. Victor’s storybook tells the tale of a Queen who lives in a castle with floors made of black and white squares, and Sara’s imagination conjures fantasy.

Once she manages to buy the expensive chess set, Sara finds herself often in the magical world of the King and the Queen, where grown men are dressed as various chess pieces. Sara gets to learn a lot about chess by being part of its life-size version. The Queen explains to Sara that she must think up a game to amuse her husband so as to keep him from going to war, and also assures Sara to help reunite her estranged parents. The art design of these fantasy sequences has the sophistication of a children’s theatre play, but that seems deliberate so as to give a humorous feel to the film.

The most interesting scenes of the film are towards the end when while Sara plays at chess competitions, the game pieces come alive and discuss moves with her. The climax is particularly touching as chess is cleverly used as an adhesive to bring Hooke, Sara and her mother together.

There are no high-tension or edge-of-the-seat moments, which a plot such as this leaves itself open to. That also means there’s a bare minimal use of special effects. It’s the story’s simplicity and earnestness that carries the film forward and gently into the viewer’s heart.

Before this film, the exhibition featured documentaries like Bobby Fischer against the World, Brooklyn Castle, and Kings and Queens of Qatar, and also classics like Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khiladi.

Resplendent with the finest collection of game pieces, boards, manuscripts and other artefacts associated with chess, pachisi, backgammon, and gyaan chauper (the snakes and ladders of yore), the exhibition takes you through the origins of some of the world’s most celebrated board games. Apart from the exhibits, Kings and Pawns has featured a series of activities like live chess matches, art workshops, lectures from experts on board games, and film screenings.