The Dark Horse (2014) on Netflix
Genesis Potini, a Maori speed-chess champion with bipolar disorder, joins a kids' chess club and aims for the Junior National Championships. His nephew Mana is due to join his father's gang.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.4/106,901 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Genesis Potini is a Maori speed-chess champion in Gisborne who lives with bipolar disorder. After a hospital stay, his brother Ariki takes him in, and Genesis sleeps in his nephew's room. When he learns that Noble Keelan, an old chess friend, runs a club, he turns up at Noble's house early one morning and asks to join, agreeing not to rock the boat. The Eastern Knights meet in a shed with a single board and unmotivated children. Genesis introduces himself and says he wants the children to reach the Junior National Championships in Auckland, which frustrates Noble. Ariki's son Mana has followed him there, and his father intends for him to be patched into the gang.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Dark Horse (2014)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- At director James Napier Robertson's request, Cliff Curtis gained close to 27 kg (60 pounds) to play chess coach Genesis Potini and stayed in character for the entire shoot. Curtis also studied chess with some of Potini's friends, including FIDE Master Ewen Green.
- The film is based on Genesis Potini, a real Gisborne speed chess player and coach who died in 2011 and taught local youth chess to steer them away from gangs and crime. Potini had bipolar disorder and had been the subject of a well received 2003 documentary, Dark Horse.
