Building Material
THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND I Chiwetel Ejiofor directs and stars in an uplifting true story…
I’ve always been drawn to and excited by stories that originate in Africa,”
12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor tells Teasers. “People there have very big lives where extraordinary things happen and amazing hurdles are overcome.” Born in east London to Nigerian parents, Ejiofor has faced a few hurdles himself over the course of his 41 years. Small wonder, then, that he was attracted to the story of William Kamkwamba, a resourceful young man from a village in Malawi who turned its fortunes around by building a windmill out of scrap metal and bicycle parts.
Kamkwamba’s story went on to be retold in a hugely popular TED talk, a best-selling memoir and an awardwinning 2013 documentary. For Ejiofor, though, it always had “enormous potential for a really exciting and interesting film”. “It felt like a story that lived in the solution, rather than the problem,” he elaborates.
“It had a positive energy that could really lend itself to cinema. William was challenged by a lack of education, but was able to unite with his community to solve problems together. The same issues William faced are faced by people all around the world, so I felt that it was a relevant conversation to have.” Initially tasked with writing the film’s screenplay, Ejiofor was eventually enticed to not only become its director but
also play William’s beleaguered father Trywell. “It’s a lot to take on but I thought it fitted quite well,” he shrugs. “And there was also an additional advantage when it came to working with Maxwell.” That’s Maxwell Simba, the fresh-faced Kenyan he cast as William. “Playing the father as well as being the director meant we could have an unbroken interaction.”
Shooting on location in Malawi was not without its challenges, yet Ejiofor believes they were worth tolerating for a “sense of authenticity”. The wisdom of that decision was borne out when Ejiofor screened the film to the guy who inspired it. “I was able to show it to William in New York recently and he loved it,” he says with pride. “It was like a time machine for him, a teleportation device that took him back to those events in a cinematic way.”