Chiwetel Ejiofor’s New Netflix Film Avoids Sensationalizing A Disaster Through Telling A Specific Tale

Ejiofor, known in the U.S. best for his starring role in 12 Years a Slave, has now directed (and is starring in) a new film for Netflix, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. He wanted to be careful to ground it, and set it, in a very specific place and time. “The way that we relate to those kind of rural African communities is very rarely within the epic storytelling tradition of cinema. … So it was important to me to look at that and to think, Okay, how do I render this truthfully, but in an epic way?” – The Atlantic