nearly ten years ago published malawiern William Kamkwamba her autobiographical novel ”The boy who harnessed the wind”. In the book he tells the uplifting sannsagan about how he as a boy saved his village from a famine by building a wind turbine with the help of a book and loose scrap. His invention meant that the villagers could konstbevattna their drying harvests.
One of the many who was fascinated by Trywells uplifting Hollywood history was the oscar nominated british actor Chiwetel Ejiofor who played everything from romantic ”Love, actually” violent ”12 years a slave”.
Williams ‘ story is both a local and a universal story that works on so many different levels – with themes including climate, the environment, the economy, education and gender equality. At the same time, there is an exciting familjedynamik – not least between father and son which is the core of my narrative, ” says Chiwetel Ejiofor in a hotel room in Berlin in conjunction with the world premiere at the Berlin film festival.
humble impression, has a strong but quiet charisma – so far away from the klichébilden of the self-absorbed hollywood star. For the british actor touched the history of his own african familjerötter in Nigeria. As a child he spent many holidays in the nigerian countryside.
– Even if there is no generic Africa, there are similarities between Malawi and Nigeria. The Netflix-produced ”The boy who harnessed the wind” is an authentic portrayal of an african experience – without having to be some exotic fairy tale or a nightmarish heart of Darkness-depiction, ” says Ejiofor.
His feature film debut is both inspired by Vittorio De Sicas neo-realism’s classic ”bicycle thieves”, Haile Gerimas ”Harvest: 3000 years” which depicted the 70’s famine in Ethiopia and the French impressionists, who managed to capture the poor of the French countryside on a beautiful and romantic way. And, not least, Fernando meirelles beach vibrating kriminaldrama ”city of God” that takes place in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.
– ”city of God” made an extremely strong impression on me when it came in the beginning of the 2000s. Even if my film is more family friendly so I applied the same sort of mix of authenticity and a cinematic dynamism that managed to convey life’s epic nature, ” says the fresh director who hired both the costume designer and the composer of ”City of god” to his first film production.
the recording was about the logistics of carrying out recording equipment to Malawi, which previously has not been any center for large-scale productions. For Chiwetel Ejiofor it was also a challenge to dubbelarbeta behind and in front of the camera. In the movie, he plays William Kamkwambas dad, Trywell, a pressed and a principled family man who slowly thaws up when he realizes his son’s peculiar talent.
Image 1 of 2 Chiwetel Ejiofor in ”12 years a slave” Photo: SVT Slide 2 of 2 Photo: Entertainment Pictures Slideshow
– Absolutely amazing! Of course I am the best director I’ve worked with, the laughs Ejiofor, which is directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Steve McQueen and Stephen Frears.
” No, but it seemed both complicated and a little strange to be both behind and in front of the camera. The advantage was that I and Maxwell Simba (who plays William) was able to build up strong ties to each other without anyone else interfered in our dynamics. It meant that we could take out the turns in our spelscener. At the same time, it is probably good to have a third party look at what you do as an actor – it is difficult to just eliminate this need, but…it was just to run, smiling Ejiofor.
The biggest lessons he got in klipprummet.
– As a director, he gained a greater understanding of what is going on in the scenes and how complex the klippningsprocessen is. I realize that a director must make many difficult decisions and as an actor, I have learned more about how I make sure that they get the opportunities to cut as they need, ” explains Ejiofor.
In the upcoming live-version of ”the lion king”, which premieres later in the year, he does the voice of Scar ”the lion king”.
” I think I have an attraction to fables and fairy tales. This whole idea of falling down the rabbit hole and discover the world… ” says Ejiofor and talking about ”the teleportation experience” that inspired him.
” I want the audience to be in exactly the same landscape as the William in my film, be a part of a larger community, and feel that you build something together with him.
”The boy who harnessed the wind” has worldwide premiere on Netflix on march 1. Paradoxically, it becomes difficult to reach out to the environments that the film depicts. Most people in Malawi do not have access to broadband so they can stream the movie.
” We’re working to try to solve this together with the African Leadership Academy in south Africa, where William later had to go to school. The school has thousands of students who have contact with communities across Africa, so we are investigating how to be able to arrange public screenings of the film.