The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, review: Accomplished directorial debut from Chiwetel Ejiofor

Dir: Chiwetel Ejiofor; Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maxwell Simba, Lily Banda, Noma Dumezweni, Aïssa Maïga. Cert TBC, 113 mins

Chiwetel Ejiofor makes an accomplished directorial debut with this adaptation of William Kamkwamba’s autobiographical novel. Set in Malawi in 2001, the film deals with the desperate plight of a farming family threatened with starvation. The film works on many different levels: as a coming-of-age story, as folkloric village tale, as eco-fable, and as a lyrical and insightful account of resourcefulness and ingenuity in the face of disaster.

William (Maxwell Simba) is a precocious 13-year-old boy. His father Trywell (Ejiofor) proudly sends him off to school. Then the rains fail. Corrupt politicians won’t help the community even as famine becomes inevitable. William is forced to leave the school because of unpaid fees. Other villagers don’t know why he bothers studying anyway given that it’s his destiny to work on the land. William likes tinkering with old radios. His hey presto moment comes when he realises that the light on the schoolteacher’s bike is powered by a dynamo. He finds a book, Using Energy, which gives him the inspiration to build a windmill that can generate electricity.

The storyline here is predictable. Even the title is a spoiler. The film, though, is far more than a triumphalist tale about a clever kid helping his community out of a jam. Ejiofor is as interested in the relationships between the family members as in William’s experiments with wirings, magnets and old bicycles. His own character, Trywell, is a proud but scrupulously honest man. He works very hard but is held back both by his lack of education and by his refusal to bend rules.

The film portrays an Africa in which there is no equality of opportunity and in which entire communities are simply abandoned by the politicians. In one very shocking scene, the village elder is brutally beaten up simply for speaking out in public, calling on the government to intervene to provide emergency aid in the event of famine. The arrival of the famine is like a slow motion car crash. Everyone knows that is going to happen but they are powerless to stop it. William and his family begin to ration their food, having only one meal a day.

We see Trywell becoming increasingly desperate, attempting to cultivate bone dry land where nothing will grow. When his son claims “I can bring water, I can make rain,” he is first sceptical and then furious. He thinks William is playing around at a time when the family faces catastrophe. Tensions mount. Trywell’s daughter, who is having a secret affair with the teacher, is desperate to leave home. Parents will do anything for their kids. One mother even says she will cut off her arm so her child can eat.

This may all sound very grim but the film never depicts its characters as passive victims. William is a Huck Finn like character with an adventurous and mischievous streak. He is also very resilient. Cinematographer Dick Pope does full justice to the beauty of the landscapes. There are colourful scenes of village rituals involving stilt walkers and masks. Ejiofor manages to maintain dramatic interest even if we all know in advance just how the film will end.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is now available to stream on Netflix