The Dark Horse

Film based on the life of Maori speed-chess coach and player Genesis Potini, known as ‘Gen’. ‘Gen’ is a streetwise soul, whose preternatural understanding of chess seems intertwined with a streak of outcast ‘madness’. 

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.