Malawi true story ‘The boy who harnessed the wind’ on Netflix 1 March

Netflix, the world’s leading streaming site  is on March 1 2019 set to release a movie titled ‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,’ based on a true story of a 32-year-old Malawian,William Kamkwamba.

Based on the book of the same name, the movie will also have a limited cinematic run in  from February 2 2019.

The movie is currently screening for its global debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Netflix’s movie synopsis reads: “Adapted from the bestselling book by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind follows 13-year-old William Kamkwamba (newcomer Maxwell Simba) who is thrown out of the school he loves when his family can no longer afford the fees.

“Sneaking back into the school library, he finds a way, using the bones of the bicycle belonging to his father Trywell (Chiwetel Ejiofor), to build a windmill which then saves his Malawian village from famine.

“The emotional journey of a father and his exceptional son at its heart, William’s tale captures the incredible determination of a boy whose inquisitive mind overcame every obstacle in his path.”

The‘12 Years a Slave’ star, Chiwetel Ejiofor directed the movie.

Ejiofor said he was enthused by the book and wanted get the entire sense of it.

“To get emotional truth of the story, I spent a lot of time with William.

“I came to Malawi to experience the book from the actual ground. I met his family, friends and saw the village where everything took place.

“William, his family and people live these incredibly epic lives and that was something that I really found in the book. It’s an epic story,” said Ejiofo.

In its review, The Guardian UK newspaper wrote  that while Ejiofor does pitch the film at a broad audience, he makes a key decision not to force his characters to always speak English. They oscillate between English and Chichewa, mostly using the latter, and at a time when too many film-makers are choosing to avoid subtitles, even when telling fact-based stories from foreign countries, it’s hugely refreshing.

“There’s an interesting throughline, rarely seen on screen, of tradition v modernity in rural Africa, of parents deliberately eschewing what they perceive to be dated belief systems of the past to encourage progress. They don’t want to rely on praying for rain to save their crops; they want pragmatism instead. It’s also reflected in a desire for education so that children can leave their village, determined that they won’t be facing similar hardships as adults,” reads the review.

Kamkwamba said  he did not even dream of being a hero of some sort or that his story could be told in a movie.

“It’s very exciting to me because at the time that I was writing the book I wanted to reach out to as many people as possible. Having this chance of getting this story into a movie is going to reach more people than the book could have managed to do,”he explained.

Kamkwamba added that a  movie with Netflix will enable a lot of people to access the story and learn from it.

Netflix is a leader in home entertainment, whatever genre of movie you feel like.  For anyone wanting to know the best horror movies on Netflix – Newstrail is the best source to read.

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