Akinola Davies Jr. turned a childhood memory into an acclaimed film

Akinola Davies Jr. turned a childhood memory into an acclaimed film

Last year, a movie called My Father’s Shadow made history when it became the first Nigerian film to be officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Set over the course of a single day in Lagos in 1993 (a day that happens to be one of the most catastrophic in Nigerian history), the film follows two young boys who join their father on a trip to the city so he can collect his paycheck. The story is semi-autobiographical, based on director Akin…

My Father's Shadow review — 'A hugely impressive debut film'

This is a gorgeous day-in-the-life-style coming-of-age film, sprawling and beautifully made. First-time director Akinola Davies Jr., who co-wrote with his brother Wale Davies, based the film partly on his own life, and it feels like a hazy memory, evocatively summoning the sights, sounds and smells of an eventful 24 hours in Lagos. In 1993, Nigeria was on the brink of political upheaval. As depicted here, the country seems on a knife edge: on th…

My Father’s Shadow review – a very fine picture on a formal and…

Akinola Davies Jr announces himself as the real deal with this mightily impressive and affecting debut. The outskirts of Lagos, 1993: a harried father, Folarin (Sope Dirisu), returning to his tumbledown home, makes the snap decision to scoop up his two bored, young sons and take them on a road trip into central Lagos to collect wages owed to him. He has an ulterior motive – he wants them all be at ground zero when the results of a national elect…