William Kamkwamba was born in the country of Malawi, in Africa. When he was fourteen years old, a terrible drought hit the village where he lived. People had nothing to eat. Being an excellent student and very fond of physics, William decides to save his native village from starvation. In the library he finds books on physics. After studying the books, he got an idea to build a wind generator, to provide electricity to his family.... (Full plot summary below)
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William Kamkwamba was born in the country of Malawi, in Africa. When he was fourteen years old, a terrible drought hit the village where he lived. People had nothing to eat. Being an excellent student and very fond of physics, William decides to save his native village from starvation. In the library he finds books on physics. After studying the books, he got an idea to build a wind generator, to provide electricity to his family.
Leave your thoughts about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
| Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFor all these self-effacing but highly valuable reasons, when the triumphs of the human, agricultural and engineering spirits arrive, they work. It’s moving, and it’s earned. Ejiofor is off and running as a director. |
| The PlaylistJason BaileyThe director resists the urge to make the family too heroic – in fact, his own character takes an unsympathetic turn near the end, which must’ve been a tough call. But it matters, because it renders his deeply-felt joy and pride at the picture’s conclusion all the more potent. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawChiwetel Ejiofor has made his debut as writer-director, and the result is exhilarating and rather inspiring – a story of success against the odds, of ingenuity and resourcefulness, of a father and son painfully coming to terms with each other. |
| RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyEjiofor’s movie eloquently harnesses all these customary elements and yields them into an irresistible family film that plays like a brand-new “October Sky” with an urgent human-interest dimension at its heart. |
| Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThe tale of a kid whose rebellion is in feeding his knowledge is rousing enough, but it’s to Ejiofor’s credit that he takes care to meaningfully dramatize how the systems around William — social, economic and political — create a perfect storm of obstacles for anyone in a struggling community trying to seed a future. |
| The GuardianBenjamin LeeIt’s a conventional film in many ways but one that slowly and effectively builds to a remarkably rousing climax, displaying an act of overwhelming ingenuity that’s hard to deny. |
| TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanExhibiting a dexterity that suggests far more extensive directorial experience, Ejiofor proves himself a master of impact. His visual approach is expansive and evocative, thanks also to the fine work of cinematographer Dick Pope. |
| The AtlanticDavid SimsThe Boy Who Harnessed the Wind could’ve been a conventional narrative of despair and redemption; in Ejiofor’s hands, it builds realism and context into both sides of that story and manages to be a winning adaptation as a result. |
| The Film StageDan MeccaIn many respects, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind feels like a showcase of immense talent, both in front of and behind the camera. If stories like this can continue to be told with the confidence of fresh filmmaking voices like Chiwetel Ejiofor, we will all be better for it. |
| San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisObviously a passion project, but Ejiofor keeps his film grounded in reality and avoids histrionics. And even though the plot is predictable from the get-go, the cast in uniformly good, and it’s hard not to be moved when William’s water-pumping invention carries the day. His story is one that’s worth telling. |
