The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
“Don’t you see, he’s not sneaking into the school. He’s sneaking out of the fields.”
A 2019 Netflix Original directed, written, directed by, and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. It is told half in English and half in Chewa, the native language of this village in Malawi, Africa. It is based on the book written by William Kamkwamba, also the main character, about his true story.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind hits home with a well told story but also does not faulter on any form of technical greatness. The shots are unnoticeable, but they support the story greatly, nothing feels deadpan or out of place, it is a balance between what we need to see and how we need to feel. It is like well written paragraph. Close ups act as short sentences. They emphasize a point. Wide shots act as both medium length sentences, to give you a little more information, and long compound ones in order to give us an all-encompassing view of the surroundings. The movie is shot and takes place nearly totally outside, yet there is still always control over lighting, whether that is a natural look or something fabricated I can not tell, but it looks good.
William Kamkwamba (played by Maxwell Simba) and his father Trywell (Ejiofor) live in a small farming village. They have a responsibility to their family, their tribe, and their chief, who has a role of his own to support the presidential candidate. The chief takes a stance, supporting the candidate, who is the soon to be dictator, Bakili Muluzi (played by Edwin Chonde) in an open gathering, then goes on to talk about how one needs a government that will not support corruption. The chief stands for his people, who are in turn openly against any presidential candidate that may be running.
There is a huge emphasis on family – their responsibility to their tribe - the role they play to support their chief who has a role to support the presidential candidate but fails, causing the new government to ruin their economy. The people of the village are forced to sell land which will cause deforestation and flooding. A disaster for their already sparse crops, So Trywell cannot afford to send William to school. William has to sneak in, disobeying his father, playing with “toys” rather than plowing the fields. But William sneaks into the school library with help from the young teacher, who fancies his older sister, in order to learn how to help his people farm even when the rains do not come after floods have ruined their farmland. There is a value of education, but then the necessity for survival brings us and William back to his village again and again.
The new government causes others to break the law and steal all their crops, so William sneaks into a government hand out area to get grain for his family. He seems to be the only one who is making headway. Trywell, following suit of the theme, is one that cares for his family rather than the government. He does not play business like other men, he farms and cares for his people. Trywell wants his children to get a higher education, because the smart ones leave and his father never valued education. He wants William to go away, to make a better life for himself, but all of William’s actions are for the village, for their people. It’s an epic, and inspiring story of selflessness and drive we have for those we care about.
March 28, 2019