‎The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019) directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

2019 Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor

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

Maxwell Simba Chiwetel Ejiofor Aïssa Maïga Lily Banda Joseph Marcell Lemogang Tsipa Philbert Falakeza Noma Dumezweni Khalani Makunje Robert Agengo Felix Lemburgo Raymond Ofula Rophium Banda Kelvin Maxwell Ngoma Edwin Chonde Fiskan Makawa Beatus Ble Msamange Trevor Dominic Truth Dominic Rashid Tambala Latifa Tambala Fredrick Lukhere Hestingzi Phiri Samson Kambalu Martin Githinji Melvin Alusa Amos Chimpokoser Kelvin Chimpokoser Eddie Mbugua Show All…

Alternative Titles

Το Αγόρι που Δάμασε τον Άνεμο, ბიჭი, რომელმაც ქარი მოათვინიერა, O Menino que Descobriu o Vento

drama

113 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 2

Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor originally planned to stay behind the camera in his solid but somewhat uninvolving directorial debut, but it’s easy to understand why felt he compelled to star: Trywell Kamkwamba is one of the more fascinating characters he’s ever played.
An uneducated Malawian farmer who strives to provide schooling for his children, Trywell is too dignified to sell the family’s ancestral land to the tobacco business, and too savvy to think he can redeem his future by surrendering his past. He’s an honest man in a village that’s being choked to death by corruption, and — as a national food crisis takes hold — Trywell grows too desperate to see that his young son William (Maxwell Simba) might…
Review by Allison M. ★★★

This Netflix film is good: about a boy living in extreme poverty in Malawi, Africa. He creates a wind turbine and goes on to study at top universities.
Chiwetel Ejiofor directs. The acting is especially good. Overall, it was pretty standard, but it's a heartwarming story and is easily found on Netflix.
Review by Two Cineasts ★★★★ 2

THE NEXT GREAT NETFLIX PRODUCTION
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First of all you need to know that 80% of the spoken language is in Chichewa, so you probably need to read a lot of subtitles. So Chiwetel Ejiofors long film debut as a director is based on a memoir from William Kamkwamba and his true story placed in the mid 2000s. It's the story of a boy who try to save his entire village by using the minimum of knowledge and equipment he has available to build a windmill. The movie is really emotional and touching on humble base. This is a true story and it feels like that. If you allow it and get used to a slow tempo the movie does…
Review by Tasha Robinson ★★★★ 3

This would probably look like a pretty standard real-life inspirational story turned fictional movie, except that it's so rich and well-realized. The performances are terrific, and there's a lot of passion and emotion to the story. But what impressed me more was how thoroughly this film sinks into a local culture, capturing everything from the shifting tides of politics in a newly democratic environment to the unspoken presence of a cult that appears at transitional rituals like funerals. This is a very lived-in film, a convincing portrait of a society rather than the kind of glossy abstraction that comes out of so many based-on-a-true-story situations, and as a first feature, it's just stunning.
Review by í𝒌𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒍𝒆 ★★★½

Chiwetel Ejiofor proves to be proficient in both in front and behind the camera. He might want to elaborate on the latter one, but I think for a directional debut, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a strong way to start.
Right from the get-to we are invited to the harsh living situations in Malawi without hardly any commentary. There are a number of gorgeous looking scenes, mostly utilizing zooming techniques which placed emphasis on crucial, emotional beats, indicating that Ejiofor is no stranger to film direction. The saturated, brownish color palette accounted for a sense of groundedness and was the right choice in my opinion.
However, certain parts of the writing unfortunately lacked the richness of the visual…
Review by Austin Burke ★★★½ 8

👍🏻70%
YouTube review - Click HERE
2019 list - Click HERE
Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of my favorites in Hollywood (at the moment), so I was excited to see where he was going to go in terms direction. I really liked what I saw; both from an acting and directing standpoint. Ejiofor’s chemistry with his family was perfection and our lead, played by Maxwell Simba, is going to be a star. I can see so much potential in this young actor and I was impressed. The story itself is heartwarming and inspiring. It’s a story that needs to be told. It could have easily been botched. I was a tad hesitant going because of the fear that it would be. Thankfully the…

Recent reviews

Review by wrymereo ★★★★

"DIY Science and Hunger Crisis"
Review of Chiwetel Ejiofor's "THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND" (2019)
"All farmers ever do is worry, whether the rain falls, the sun shines or the wind blows. In short, all they know is fear."
One of the samurai comments in Akira Kurosawa's 1954 epic 'Seven Samurai'. A simple enough piece of writing that qualifies itself as a universal truth, across nations, across cultures and across the ages. At least to those of us not belonging to the so called 'First World', it's the abject truth of it all.
The struggle between man and nature is ancient. Borrowing from nature incurs a debt to it, one that keeps stacking. And for the comfort of the…
Review by David Queiroz ★★★

This movie was slow with no character to hold the interest in it.
Review by Danilo Fernandes ★★★★

I almost cried
Review by Julian D ★★★

2020 Best International Film submissions 12/93
A very intriguing story that's mostly presented in a generic and conventional way. The execution could've been so much more interesting.
There's some very beautiful shots in this, a great score and pretty good acting!
Review by feliciaaa ★★★★

‘Ngati mphepo yofika konse’
Despite being boring in the beginning, i decided that it was kind of touchy after seeing the photos of William and the others in the end. The movies based on true stories are always way more heartfelt than the others. -says she who has a heart of stone-
p.s: The majority of the film was in Chichewa language yet i watched it with Castilian subs as if my Castilian knowledge was so broad, lol. Sorry not sorry, my dear brain.
Review by Mario Alvarez ★★★

Una película sólida y muy convencional. La historia está interesante, más por el hecho de estar basada en un hecho real, pero hay secuencias, como la postura del padre, que resultan predecibles.
Review by culturamagz ★★★★½

Film ini bukan hanya membuka mata kita tentang seorang pemuda yang berhasil merubah kehidupan di Malawi tetapi juga membuat kita terenyuh dengan kehidupan kemiskinan yang terjadi pada masa itu. Kisah ini pun turut menyiratkan bahwa selain kehidupan yang bisa kita nikmati dengan baik, diluar sana masih banyak keluarga yang harus bertahan hidup dengan susah payah untuk memenuhi kebutuhan hidup mereka.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Review
Review by Davi Fonseca Candido ★★★

É meio surpreendente como esse filme hitou na Netflix do meu país mas anyway... Ele é bonzinho e tem uma fotografia bacana em alguns momentos
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Review by Quinoah ★★★★★

The movie takes its time but if you just go with it you’ll be rewarded. Such a powerful and important plot.