The boy who harnessed the wind is a 2019 British drama written as well as directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. It is based on a true story of the same name William Kakwamba. This film makes you realise a lot of things, one of them being how terribly difficult putting theoretical knowledge to practical use is.
The story is about a family in Wimbe. It’s about a boy’s hunger for education, a father and mother’s desperate attempt at making sure they provide for their kids, and a sister who’s caught between the decision to leave or stay. But there is one concern that the entire family shares and that is something we privileged folks don’t even think about, dying of hunger.
The storyline is quite simple and is very cleverly executed. Wimbe is a village of farmers and is plagued by hunger thanks to the badly timed rains. As William’s father, Trywell played by Ejiofor is unable to grow crops, the family is low on money, due to which his son William, played by Maxwell Simba has to leave school. Adding to it the government fails to provide enough food for the masses, and well we all know what happens when people get hangry. Riots break out and a few starving lads steal a considerable amount of food from the Kakwamba family’s pantry leaving them to resort to one meal per day rule. William who’s been taking scraps out of the junkyard to make radios work for pastime finds a way to help not just his family but perhaps even the village from hunger. But making a water pump not only requires knowledge and understanding of the science behind it but also the parts to make it from scratch. Trywell isn’t very supportive at the beginning and is convinced his delusional son is spewing too good to be true crap but the desperation makes him cave in. Trywell loses his cycle in the process but hey at least there’ll be enough food to feed the mouths in his house.
The cinematography in this memoir makes it very raw and does a brilliant job of making you feel a lot of emotions. Wide shots are used to provide the context of the background and also to add a tinge of emotionality to the film. There is a clever use of cool and warm palettes throughout the film, the aerial shot of the cracked earth for an instance, the warm tones in this shot make you almost feel the heat and dryness and the use of light accentuates the effect as well.
From cultural references of Christian names to creepy-looking dancing cults, symbolism runs rampant in this directorial debut. Although the plot is a fairly simple one, there are quite a lot of layers in the film in terms of themes, like gender, famine, survival, crisis, hunger, religion, family, and culture. The message to not lose hope and have faith is reinforced multiple times throughout the film.
Hopefully, after this film, you’ll think a lot before overordering food or leaving that half-eaten sandwich on your plate.
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