The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Watch: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Unrated

3/1/20191h 53m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

Overview:

Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.

Director:

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

africa
windmill
family power struggle
water for life
challenge for change
dedicated
ingenuity
dedication
struggle for independence
the ingenious one

Cast

Maxwell Simba

~ as ~

William Kamkwamba

Chiwetel Ejiofor

~ as ~

Trywell Kamkwamba

Aïssa Maïga

~ as ~

Agnes Kamkwamba

Lily Banda

~ as ~

Annie Kamkwamba

Joseph Marcell

~ as ~

Chief Wembe

Lemogang Tsipa

~ as ~

Mike Kachigunda

Philbert Falakeza

~ as ~

Gilbert Wimbe

Noma Dumezweni

~ as ~

Edith Sikelo

Khalani Makunje

~ as ~

Daniel Ngwata

Robert Agengo

~ as ~

Jeremiah Kamkwamba

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
7
This is a great looking film depicting the abject poverty, despite their best efforts, of a subsistence farming community in Malawi. The cinematography is glorious as we follow the Kamkwamba family's struggles to educate their children and feed themselves at the same time - in the face of some pretty brutal government corruption and a severe drought. Son "William" (Maxwell Simba) is thirteen, and he has more than an average degree of nouse to him - he concludes, after studying a few engineering books in his school's library - that by cannibalising an old bike and an old ghetto-blaster, he can create a turbine mechanism that could be used to generate electrical power to pump water and help them to improve their harvest, and their lives... Chiwitel Ejiofor is his rather sceptical father, struggling under the pressures of keeping his family alive and the two have quite a forceful battle of wills as the young man attempts to convince his father that sacrificing the family's only mode of transport is a risk worth taking! I found the establishing parts of the story a bit too slow; once I understood the extent of their predicament and what the young man was trying to do, I was itching for him to succeed - and the behaviour of the father I found irritating and incongruous, slightly, with a man so keen on educating his family. That said, once it starts to focus on the project, I was astonished by the ingenuity of "William" and his young student friends as they materially change the lives of their famines for ever. It's a good film this - a try triumph of optimism over experience that I largely enjoyed watching.