My Father's Shadow

Akinola Davies Jr.’s extraordinary debut feature is both intimate and epic. It’s a deeply personal family story set against the turbulence of 1993 Lagos during a pivotal national election promising a shift from military rule to democracy in Nigeria. When young brothers Remi and Akin unexpectedly accompany their oft-absent father to the city to collect his long-overdue salary, what unfolds is a rich journey through memory, masculinity, and a country on the cusp of fragile transformation.

Drawn loosely from Davies’ own experiences and co-written with his brother Wale, My Father’s Shadow is anything but conventional. The film begins in rural quiet and gradually delves into urban disarray, as the boys try to make sense of their father, the city, and the shifting codes of a world they’ve barely known. With elliptical pacing, poetic compositions, and a remarkable command of tone, Davies captures the sensory intensity of Lagos alongside the emotional tensions of paternal distance and political uncertainty.

Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù gives a quietly riveting performance as Folarin, a man both tough and tender, while real-life brothers Godwin Chiemerie Egbo and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo bring rawness, emotional depth, and grace to the screen. What emerges is not a story of easy reconciliation, but of slow recognition — the difficult work of seeing someone clearly, perhaps for the first time, and finding something in them more profound than expected.

JASON RYLE