‘My Father’s Shadow’ review: Sope Dirisu stars in this electric debut set in 1990s Nigeria

Dir: Akinola Davies Jr. UK/Nigeria. 2025. 95mins

Nigeria, 1993. A vital election has simply run, and the persons are hopeful of a win for Social Democrat Get together presidential candidate MKO Abiola and a recent begin for the nation following a decade beneath navy rule. And for 2 younger brothers, aged eight and eleven, it’s an equally momentous day: the father they hardly know lets them tag alongside from their sleepy village house into the overwhelming bustle and scrum of Lagos. This terrific semi-autobiographical first function from filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr, which stars Gangs of London’s Sope Dirisu because the boys’ magnetic father Folarin, is a thrillingly very important account of the second when every thing adjustments.

A thrillingly very important account of the second when every thing adjustments

It’s an eye catching and completed debut from Davies, a author, director and video artist whose 2020 brief movie Lizard was BAFTA-nominated and received the Sundance prize for Greatest Quick Movie. With a textural high quality to the sound design and a fragmented, frayed patchwork of actual archival footage, there are similarities right here with RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys. There’s additionally a kinship with the work of fellow West African diaspora member Mati Diop – like Atlantics, it is a movie that mixes an Africa-infused power with a European arthouse sensibility to highly effective impact. Le Pacte picked up French distribution forward of the image’s premiere in Un Sure Regard and that is more likely to be a title of appreciable curiosity for patrons and programmers alike.

The kid’s eye view of a seismic time of political upheaval shouldn’t be a wholly new storytelling method, however Davies breathes recent life into the gadget. The boys play a symbolic function in addition to a literal one, standing for the Nigerian individuals who really feel uncared for and let down by their nation, however who dare to hope that higher instances are simply starting. His work along with his younger novice actors – Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo play 11-year-old Remi and his youthful brother Akin, respectively – is delicate; their fractious, combative relationship is as a lot a dwelling factor as any of the characters.

There’s a stunning second early on when the boys, left to their very own gadgets whereas their mom heads to the village, play with crudely-drawn paper cutouts of well-known wrestlers (The Undertaker is extremely prized by each, and is a flash level for one of many many bickering skirmishes between them). Just like the curious youngsters transposed into an unfamiliar world, the digital camera is hungry and stressed, fixating on tiny particulars when the larger image turns into too overwhelming.

The day in Lagos takes in a go to to Folarin’s office, the place he vainly tries to pin down a supervisor who owes him months of unpaid wages. Elsewhere, the father shares his favorite haunts – a seaside, a down-at-heel fairground – and consuming locations, the place he’s greeted like a returning hero. These he meets name him ‘Kapo’, an Ogu title signifying hope. The boys’ eager eyes take within the respect that their father is proven, together with the charged glare from a girl he encounters at a thronging bar filled with drinkers celebrating what they imagine is a win for MKO Abiola. But the festive spirit ideas over into violence when the election is annulled by navy dictator Ibrahim Babangida. The chaos and heightened tensions tackle a disorientating high quality for the kids and for the viewers; one factor is for certain nonetheless – Folarin’s destiny is inextricably linked to that of his nation. 

“I’ll see you in my desires”, a younger boy’s voice tells his absent father; it’s a recurring line of voice-over that bookends the movie. That, along with a potent however surprising last scene, provides a level of ambiguity to this heady, bonding day of journey. We’re left questioning whether or not the extreme, overwhelming day of latest experiences occurred in any respect. Was it dreamed up within the coronary heart of a kid starved of contact with a father who spends lengthy months working away from house? Or was it a pre-emptive act of closure by a person who, for numerous causes, suspects that his time on earth could be drawing to an in depth?