He received the award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at Sundance for having promoted the science. However, The boy who dompta the wind has not has not been unanimous at all. Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor ( 12 Years a Slave , 2012 ), also on the screen, the film has aroused many criticisms from the community in malawi. He is accused of “massacre” in chichewa, the local dialect. For his first film as a director, the one that we have seen in 12 Years a Slave chose to put in scene the true story of a teenager in malawi, William Kamkwamba (Maxwell Simba) who, at the beginning of 2000, has built a windmill to save his village from drought, with the means of the board. It is by observing the dynamo of a bicycle as a teenager of 13 years that he was had in mind to build a windmill, using an electric pump found in a landfill, and following the advice of an old manual. It is available from the 1st of march on Netflix.
A film destined for “the international audience”
Shot in chichewa, a bantu language spoken in several countries of the region, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, The boy who dompta the wind “sounds wrong”, says the critic malawian Stanley Onjezanu Kenani to the AFP. “Malawians have never been the target audience for this film, and thus the international audience for which it is intended does not care about whether chichewa is slaughtered,” he said. This opinion is shared by a cinephile in malawi Gertrude Chimanga, who notes that “in some sentences the actors say words that mean nothing.”
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Yet, for the purposes of the film, the cast has received during chichewa. An initiative welcomed by the director in malawi Chipiliro Khonje, who said that they “would have had to spend more time to learn the language.” “Next time, give a chance to local actors! They could surprise the whole world”, throws his brother Shemu Joyah, who is shown to be more indulgent about the film.
“The language is a problem for a Malawian like me, but as I was probably the only one to understand the chichewa in the cinema, it was not the other spectators,” he noted. He prefers to remember, however, the “magnificent performance of the actors.” “It is a brilliant film that tracks a drama real, and manages to create tension even when we already know the end”, he adds.
William Kamkwamba, touched that the film has been shot in chichewa
The real hero of the film, William Kamkwamba, who co-wrote the book, which the movie of the same name has been adapted, explained to the AFP have been touched that the shooting took place in chichewa. “Learning a foreign language is one of the most difficult things,” said the young man, now 31-years-old, before adding: “When I wrote the book with Bryan Mealer, I wanted to share my story. I hope that the film will touch some people who have not read the book. Maybe the film will inspire people.”
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The engineer, who has investigated the environment in the United States, up today funds to open an innovation centre with an NGO, the Project wind turbines that move . “It is hard to watch the movie because it is like reliving those difficult moments,” he says. But some moments were so happy. So, I have conflicting feelings watching the movie.” With this film, Netflix intends to surf on the success of another of its production based in Africa, Catching Feelings (2018), romantic comedy that takes place in South Africa. In addition, the giant of the streaming recently commissioned several programs to comedians african.
