The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
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Justin Chadwick directs this heartwarming tale based on a true story. Set in a remote mountain village in Kenya, the film tells the story of 84-year-old former Mau Mau freedom fighter Maruge (Oliver Litondo) and his determination to learn how to read and write. When the Kenyan government promises free education for all, Maruge decides that the time has finally come for him to go to school. Fighting for his right to learn as vehemently as he once fought for his political beliefs, he manages to overcome fierce opposition and ridicule and enrols at the local primary school, where he joins a class of six-year-olds as they learn the rudiments of literacy. Naomie Harris co-stars as the school's impassioned headmistress, Jane Obinchu.
An educator must stand up for the rights of an unusual student in this drama from director Justin Chadwick, which is based on a true story. In 2002, the government of Kenya announces that free education will be available to the nation's children for the first time, and as principal Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) enrolls hundreds of new first grade students in her ramshackle school, she's greeted by one prospective student who stands out -- N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo), who is eighty-four years old. Maruge is illiterate and wants the chance to improve himself before it's too late; Obinchu initially turns him away, but Maruge isn't easily dissuaded, and after he keeps returning to the school Obinchu agrees to let him enroll. When word gets out that an octogenarian farmer is attending Obinchu's school as a first grader, many in the community are puzzled and outraged, and the news media picks up on the story, turning it into a nationwide controversy. But Maruge stands firm, and as others learn his remarkable story -- he was a rebel soldier who fought for Kenya's freedom during the colonial era -- his need to educate himself no longer seems like the eccentric whim of an old man.
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