by James Mottram
In all the arguing over whether Netflix is TV or film and whether the platform is ruining cinema, a film like The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind comes along that makes the global streamer the (almost) perfect solution.
Directed and co-starring acclaimed actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Doctor Strange, Children of Men), The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, played at the Berlin Film Festival a few weeks later, and within 5 weeks of its premiere has become available on Netflix on March 1, 2019. In today’s ‘I want it now’ culture, Netflix has given this modest ‘message’ movie the opportunity to be seen by as many people as possible. As long as you have an account and internet, of course.
“It’s very exciting to have the capacity to tell this story on a global level and I think it can be inspiring and hopeful for people in the west,” Ejiofor told us at Berlin. “But can you imagine what it would feel like, and would represent to people in these [African] communities? It’s an incredible story. So, the next challenge is to try and get beyond the length of broadband essentially. We’re investigating how we can expand the film into different communities that don’t necessarily have easy access to the internet.”
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the true story of William Kamkwamba, a Malawi boy living in an impoverished village who taught himself how to build, among many other things, a wind turbine in order to bring power to his house. His story attracted the attention of the media worldwide, and resulted in a book co-written by Bryan Mealer, which – along with Ejiofor’s many trips to Malawi over the decade it took to get the film made – was the source for the film.
Why this story to make your directing debut?
Chiwetel Ejiofor: I was just very moved by William’s story. And I was inspired by it and I found that it was a really hopeful story. It was a story that really lived in the solution. William wrestled with these problems, but he wrestled with them in this extraordinary positive way. So, the overall tale, the overall narrative was something that did that; it lives in the solution to problems and I really like that, I find it really inspiring.
I was also excited to explore this community in a way that William talks about Malawi in the book, which is very detailed and very rich. It really spoke to me in terms of this very authentic, specific, cultural dynamic. Then I thought it had this great reach and it talked about the environmental and economic concerns, science and education very powerfully. And democracy, governments; all of these things impact people on a global level in a global unity but in a very specific micro sense of those things.
Can you speak about the environmental themes of the film?
CE: I read the book in 2009 and obviously there was a conversation then but now I think it’s really urgent. Even though in the west we’re feeling the impact in a limited fashion, it’s communities at the pointy end of the stick, the most vulnerable global communities that are going to feel the impact of our decisions first. We are starting to understand that this is happening now and these are people who absolutely rely on consistency of climate to get through year to year. The climate is changing in these dynamics and our impact is very strong, and is very powerful in a global community.
So, increasing our understanding of that, and increasing the understanding that there are solutions to these problems. That’s why I feel like that’s one of the most powerful things about William’s; it really represents living in solution and optimism. Communities, global communities not just communities on the ground in certain places but the global community working together to solve issues is going to be and going to have to be the way we move forward with things like this. As opposed to the ostrich mentality that we have until it comes knocking on our door, which it is going to do as well. I think that William’s story totally represents a part of that, part of the cultural shift in terms of how we look at these environmental issues.
You don’t focus too much in the film on the building of the windmill. Was that a conscious decision?
CE: Yeah, I was very keen to look at this circumstance in a holistic way and to see what was happening in Malawi, what was happening in William’s life, and what the circumstances were that led to the situation and the closing of doors and the closing of options; so that people could relate to the experiences, who can understand the dynamics of that. But also people who are outside, and can more fully understand the building of these kind of issues; how these kind of issues arise and the context they arise in.
That was very important to me and that was a big part of telling a story and writing the story. I felt like the information in a way is about the inner dynamic of the mechanics of building the windmill. It’s there in the film but it’s also very available, that sort of information. But the information that is less available is how a community is in this circumstance and obviously how William Kamkwamba started to move out of this circumstance and to pull his community out of that circumstance. So that was the balance of telling the story.
How important is it for you to work with such metaphors?
CE: I think it’s really important because the film talks about the nature of generational understanding; the chief in the village, the father and the son, and so on. And the idea of technology against cultural traditions and religion and all of these sorts of aspects. But also, I wanted to embrace not abandoning the cultural part of developed tradition, and history. But embracing it within a different context. The way that we look at history is sometimes a little bit nostalgic. It’s not the way that people of history looked at their present.
That misunderstanding of how we embrace tradition has suddenly become quite confused in the way that we romanticise or ‘nostalgia-ise’, if that’s a word, the history of our community. Which was why put in things about ancestors; an ancestor’s approach to survival. This idea of why/how can ancestors survive without anything, and yet we are dying because people are raising the price of grain? It seems insane that we can’t have a kind of communified spirit in some ways. Those are the sort of ideas – putting things in their cultural context – that I was just excited to explore really.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is streaming on Netflix now.