The First Grader

Susan Granger’s review of “The First Grader” (BBC/National Geographic Entertainment)

 

    Back in 2000, when the government of Kenya offered a free primary education to everyone, little did they know that a hunched, hobbling, 84 year-old Mau-Mau veteran would want to join the six year-olds in a small, remote, impoverished village school.

    Having fought for the liberation of his country, illiterate Kimani Ng’ange’a Maruge (Oliver Musila Litondo) is determined to learn to read. While the province’s skeptical head administrator, Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris), is initially against his enrolling, when he subsequently appears in a makeshift uniform with scavenged school supplies, she becomes a staunch supporter of the Kikuyu guerilla rebel’s ambition, siding with him against irate parents, recalcitrant colleagues, suspicious officials and a fuming radio talk-show host, DJ Masa (Dun Ndamuki), who don’t want to waste a precious space in an overcrowded classroom on an old man.

    Based on real events, there are flashbacks of fierce tribal conflicts and the brutality of British colonial rule, including Maruge’s vivid memories of his suffering and captivity in a detention camp during the 1950s. Saddled with a formulaic and utterly predictable script by Ann Peacock (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”), British director Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) and cinematographer Rob Hardy, nevertheless, make the most of one man’s fundamental quest for literacy. As his personal plight attracted international attention, Maruge eventually went on to achieve acclaim, including addressing the United Nations in New York.

    Wrestling with the complexities of letters and numbers, Oliver Musila Litondo captures the dignity and dedication of this elderly man, while Naomie Harris (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) reflects a different kind of courage, depicting a spirited, altruistic teacher who risks not only her career but also her marriage to an ambitious bureaucrat (Tony Kgoroge). The mischievously irresistible children are students at the Rift Valley School in Kenya, where the film was shot.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The First Grader” is a feel-good, if sentimental 7. It’s an inspiring, uplifting docudrama pulling the heartstrings with the best of intentions.

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