"The Boy Who Rides the Wind" is the boy who moved Marnie the most this year.
This is the story of an ordinary boy who changed ordinary through knowledge and courage.
In Africa, where natural disasters and man-made disasters continue, in Malawi, where AIDS and poverty are coexisting, in a small village where witchcraft is prevalent, in this village where there seems to be no hope, a boy who is out of school proves that as long as there is a dream:
Even if he is young and barren and empty-handed, he can still walk in the wind.
This is a film based on a true story, set in a small remote village in Malawi. Malawi is landlocked and one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, with 65% of the population living on less than $1 a day.
The protagonist of the film, William, lives in a very backward village. The villagers cut down trees for sale, the vegetation has been destroyed, the land has lost its water storage capacity, the rainy season has turned into a flood, the production of crops has been greatly reduced, and the hungry people have robbed William's family of food for survival. . William couldn't afford the $80 a year tuition and was kicked out of the school.
But William didn't give up his studies, he read a book in the village library - "Energy Utilization", and learned to assemble the DC generator disassembled on his father's bicycle, scrap materials in the scrap station, wooden sticks...
After many "crazy" experiments, William successfully built a windmill and saved a village .
Because of stories like this, William was funded to go back to school. He completed his studies in Malawi, then went to South Africa to attend the African Leadership Institute, and then completed a degree in Environmental Science at Dartmouth College in the United States.
William also made a TED talk, where he said his next wish was: to create an Africa full of innovation, rather than relying on other people's charitable handouts.
At first, Marnie thought it was a film about African society. Because Africa has always been a vast and magical land that I have seen in the film. Just like "Out of Africa" starring Aunt May, the soul-stirring epic sense displayed in the barren land reminds us of the strength, bravery and independence contained in this land .
Later, I thought it was a movie about the reconciliation of father and son, but I didn't realize until the end that it was a story about how a young man made his ideal into reality, and as long as he had a dream, he could fly by the wind.
After watching this movie, Marnie had only four words in her heart:
still young
How many possibilities can a 13-year-old boy, a boy who has just reached puberty, have on his own?
The answer is: infinite.
I try and I made it.
"I tried and I did it," said 13-year-old boy William.
This is the chasing boy.
how do you face
the predicament of your life
?
In Malawi, wind is one of the few natural energies bestowed by God, blowing its tips morning and night. The more reason is that God is not partial to Malawi. In this small African city, life is hard to imagine. The only channel for villagers to obtain information here is the radio. A murmur of the weather forecast came from the very shabby radio, heralding the arrival of heavy rain.
William, who was about to start school, hugged his father warmly. It rained heavily on the first day of school. After the heavy rain, there was a severe drought. The crops dried up after they were planted. The floods have drastically reduced food crops. When the chief brought William's father and others to the government, the government sold the grain reserves to neighboring countries.
They are faced with difficult situations that are almost unimaginable: fraudulent extortion by foreign companies (tobacco companies forcibly buy and sell), corruption and violence by local governments (beating local chiefs, blocking news of famine), famine people start looting to feed their stomachs Weaker women and children.
When they returned home, their food was robbed by the starving people, and William was expelled from the school because he had no money to pay the tuition. African villagers who are accustomed to relying on the sky for food are constantly faced with the status quo that some people die and others escape during the famine.
The highlight of this film is that it does not cover up the cruel and dilapidated status quo, but presents the true selfishness and purity of human nature in a time of famine as much as possible.
In the overlap of good and bad, the struggle of interests and power tells the world that perseverance, kindness, and wisdom are qualities that can make people go through a long life.
My father took his family to do a superstitious thing that only ancients could do—praying for rain. But the solution is not prayer, but science, knowledge and spiritual food.
There is only one way for a country to get out of poverty, let its children go to school and use scientific knowledge to change its destiny.
This is not only a very good inspirational film, but also a documentary that makes us face life.
In front of life, each has its own difficulties.
Will you choose to compromise or find life?
how do you face
reconciliation with father
?
For William, the biggest difficulty is not from the status quo, but more from his father's lack of understanding and support for him.
The actor who plays William's father in this film, Chiwetel, is the director of this film. He was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor for "12 Years a Slave". As his directorial debut, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" is very solid in showing the real life situation of black people.
This flesh-and-blood father, while trying to support the family, seeks outside help, he does his best to think about his family, but it is inevitable that he will have friction with his children in a desperate situation .
William could not afford to go to school because of his family situation, so he secretly went to the library to study by himself. Trying to destroy the bicycle of the teacher who kicked him out of school, he accidentally discovers that the rotation of the tires can turn on the lights. Then he thought of using the principle of windmill power to extract groundwater.
William wanted to use his father's bicycle to show his gizmo to his father, who was hoeing the dry land, dusty but hopeless.
"what is this?"
"It's the wind."
"I want to build a large, powered air pump so we can grow crops."
"Let me use your bicycle and I will succeed."
The father overturned the little fan and asked William to take away the stupid thing, which he thought was just a child's fantasy.
"That's because I know things you don't. Because I go to school."
"Then you'll make toys?" Father didn't want to pay for his daydreams. Instead, he felt that William, who had gone to school, had lost his love for the land itself, and thought about some unimportant things.
Except for a few green trees in the distance, all of them looked lifeless. Later, William took a group of boys to snatch his father's bicycle. The father with a hoe frightened the group of children with an unshakable patriarchal power.
The father could not express his grievances. As the head of the family, or as the head of the family who was about to have nothing , he did not dare to take the risk. At this time, his wife asked him:
How much should we lose.
They are constantly on the move, losing parents, losing land, pets, food, what else can they not lose?
Dad decided to give it a go .
They fell trees together and made materials together. Facing everyone's incomprehension and doubts, their father finally became the most powerful force behind William.
When the windmill finally pumped water from the ground after turning, I realized for the first time " the hope of the whole village " the power and miracle beyond the comic sense of the word "
When William's tattered windmill turned out of the water, and the eyes of the whole village lit up, he really became a person who stood on a high place and was looked up to by everyone.
how do you face
own ununderstood dream
?
When William built a windmill with waste materials discarded by the tobacco company, a father's bicycle and wooden sticks, the whole village who was struggling on the brink of death finally saw hope.
William is full of curiosity about the world in the book. When he opened "Energy Utilization", the windmill mentioned in the book can pump water and generate electricity, giving him a world of infinite imagination.
His inventions are also on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The prototype of the story, William Kamkuba, gave a speech at TED:
Believe in yourself and never give up no matter what.
After watching this movie, Marnie's impression of Africa deepened:
The little people are left behind in the big times and choose to save the crisis by themselves.
Reminds me of a passage from "When Happiness Knocks on the Door":
Don't let anyone tell you what you can't do. Even if it is me, if others can't do it, they will say that you can't do it either. As long as you have a dream, you have to pursue it, and you have to work hard to pursue what you want.
God is like the wind, within reach. Maybe the meaning of this sentence is:
God has given each of us the opportunity to draw near to Him
Just to see if we can catch a moment
create something like eternity
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