The First Grader

A version of this review appeared in The Age, November 17, 2012.

This dramatised true story follows the template for inspirational films about the power of learning, except that here it's the student, rather than the teacher, who provides most of the inspiration. The Kenyan TV journalist Oliver Litondo stars as the octogenarian Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge, who was tortured in prison camps after his involvement in the Mau Mau Uprising of the 1950s. In 2004, Maruge showed up for his first day of primary school – the Kenyan government having announced its commitment to free universal education, without stipulating an age limit.

A BBC production shot on location by a British crew, The First Grader is frank about the evils of a colonial era well within living memory, and doesn't insist on giving us a sympathetic white character for “balance”. Litondo is fine in a role that calls for dignified presence more than emotional range, while Naomie Harris from the Pirates of the Caribbean series is pure sunshine as a young teacher who stands up for Maruge against the authorities who view him as nothing but trouble.

But there's no trace of originality in either the script by Ann Peacock or the direction by Justin Chadwick, the latter a BBC regular who moved onto the big screen with The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). The feelgood moments are given the full bathetic treatment, with close-ups and saccharine music; Maruge's horrific past is tastelessly revealed in a series of clumsy flashbacks, one of them triggered by an innocent request to sharpen his pencil.