Movie Making And Movie Review

Inspiring true stories and important give sometimes great films. It could have been the case with “The First Grader”, which has beautiful pictures and very good actors. The story ends up being yet too demonstrative and moralistic, thereby scuttling of its charm.

Jane Obinchu (Naomi Harris) is a teacher who lives in Kenya. She used to educate children and adolescents, but certainly not a man of 84 years! At the insistence of Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge (Oliver Musila Litondo), she finally agreed to take in its class.

“The First Grader” is not a feature film. It is rather a symbol: the Maruge. An old man recalls that it is never too late to go to school, that education is the primary means to lift the human poverty.

The message here is hammered again and again with a heavy mass destructive serve scenes are convincing emotions stiff. Even if the director Justin Chadwick (who it must be terribly ordinary “The Other Bolyen Girl”) increases the slow on young children at the notes of music winded and seconded, the viewer remains in the background, conscious that we try to handle with large strings that are not even subtle.

This is especially sad because all the elements came together to do something major, or at least interesting. The raw material is rich, the landscape (everything was actually filmed in Kenya) give a taste of traveling and the actors are generally excellent. Oliver Musila Litondo is a beautiful discovery in the difficult and complex lead role, while Naomi Harris finally found a character to its position away from the stereotypes of “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

By trying to be “deep” and finally connecting the links between yesterday and today to face the many tomorrows that are not always obvious, preaches effort, ironically, by superficiality. The filmmaker returns multiplied in the past to give a depth to his hero, a cause that includes, but never really explain the real issues. Thus the fight between the British troops and the rebels Mau Mau become incidental while they had to be at the center of all, summarizing itself to the mean white one that murder and torment whoever is located on their passage.

Then it is rather difficult to fully adhere to “The First Grader”. Maybe in the form of the documentary, it would have been different. But by the filter of fiction, the result only half convinced, which is unfortunate for subjects as paramount.