https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/02/netflixs-the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-tells-a-young-inventors-inspirational-tale/
They say necessity is the mother of invention. That aphorism was particularly apt for William Kamkwamba, who at age 14 constructed a wind turbine and saved his family from starvation. Netflix commemorated his 2006 engineering feat in “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” screened at Sundance and released in early March. The movie is inspired by the eponymous autobiography coauthored by Kamkwamba and Brian Mealer.
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as William’s father Trywell Kamkwamba. Best known for his title role as Solomon Northup in “Twelve Years a Slave” (2013), “Wind” also marks Ejiofor’s directorial motion picture debut. Maxwell Simba plays William in the supporting role. The sharp outlines of cinematography by Dick Pope reiterate that this harrowing story isn’t a fairy tale.
Unlike other teen prodigy films, such as “October Sky” (1999) and “Spare Parts” (2014), “Wind” revolves not around an esoteric hobby or scholarship contests, but devotes its object to the avoidance of starvation in a sun-baked and dusty landscape. Imagine living in Malawi, a country that has the population of New York state across an area nearly the size of Pennsylvania with a gross domestic product equivalent to that of Guam. That’s where Kamkwamba’s story takes place.