Directed by Akinola Davies Jr.
UK, Nigeria | 2025 | Fiction | 94 min | English, Naija, Yoruba w/subtitles
Sponsored by Lisa Schamberg and Pat Robins
Friday, October 17 | 7 PM | FH
Akinola Davies Jr.'s gorgeous debut shines a long-overdue spotlight on Nollywood. My Father's Shadow is the first-ever Nigerian film officially selected at Cannes. Akinola wrote the film with his brother, Wale, and the two developed the story over more than a decade, drawing inspiration from memories of their father, who died when they were young, as well as their firsthand experience during the pivotal 1993 presidential election. Dìrísù gives a magnetic performance as Folarin, an absent father who suddenly returns to his family’s remote home. Folarin takes his sons, Aki and Remi (real-life siblings Godwin Chiemerie Egbo and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo), to the city to collect overdue wages from his employer. On a single sweltering day in the heart of Lagos, while the country nervously awaits the election results, the two young boys try to make sense of the whirlwind around them and the man they see before them. During their long day in the city, they reconnect with their father, stop by his favorite haunts, and get glimpses of the life he has built away from their rural home. But something is different about him, and the dreamlike imagery gives subtle clues about the movie’s mysteries. Davies cut his teeth filming music videos and commercials and he injects a kinetic sensibility into this magical realist tale, bringing the bustling, buzzing, anxious city from his childhood to life. "That’s Lagos in a nutshell,” says Davies. “It’s so chaotic, but just magical at the same time.” ~OO