THE STORY – Kid brothers Remi and Akin get to spend a gift of a day with their estranged father Folarin. They go on a voyage into Lagos, observing the colossal city for the first time and the hoops their father must jump through to provide for them. All this happens in the backdrop of a huge 1993 presidential election result, which calls into question his ability to get them home.
THE CAST – Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Godwin Egbo, Chibuike Marvellous Egbo & Efon Wini
THE TEAM – Akinola Davies Jr. (Directors/Writer) & Wale Davies (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 94 minutes
The Nigerian presidential election of 1993 is one of those historical turning points that everyone who was living in the country at that time remembers. The first election since the country’s 1983 military coup was meant to usher in a new age of civilian rule. The election was observed by journalists and trained election monitors from around the world, but when the results came in and indicated a victory for people’s champion and Social Democrat M.K.O. Abiola, the military leadership declared that there was evidence of vote buying and annulled the election results. In response, the people of Nigeria rose up, leading to violent protests that shook the nation. For brothers Akinola (Godwin Egbo) and Olaremi (Chibuike Marvellous Egbo), this will always be the backdrop to one day they spent with their father, the enigmatic Folarin (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù). Gone from his family for months at a time while working in Lagos, the country’s biggest city, Folarin appears before the boys as if summoned by their collective wish to see him and whisks them away on a day trip. Folarin wants to spend time with his boys, but he needs to collect six months of back pay from his boss, frightened as he is of what might happen with the election results. Their journey will take them on a tour of the best and worst of Nigeria, forever changing the way the boys see their father.
The first Nigerian film to be an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, “My Father’s Shadow,” is a triumph for director Akinola Davies, Jr., who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with his brother, Wale Davies. Looking at a major historical event through the eyes of a child can go wrong in so many ways, but Davies displays magnificent formal control in his directorial debut. Shooting in a poetic style that emphasizes the boys’ outsized view of their father, Davies keeps the film from veering into magical realism by providing a tactile sense of place, lingering on bits of local color – animals in the grass, items in a market stand – to ground the film in the reality of daily life in Lagos. In this way, the film works both as a child’s-eye view of a country on the precipice of generation-defining turmoil and as an introduction to that country for people unfamiliar with it. Through this ingenious visual schema, Davies manages to keep all exposition about the election in the background, seamlessly weaving it into the fabric of the film without ever stopping to explain everything to the audience. Even without knowledge of Nigerian history, the constant glares from soldiers at Folarin, the headlines in newspapers and on television, and the general desperation in the air effectively communicate the larger story taking place around this central family.
Davies takes great care in building the family dynamic at the film’s center. The film begins with the boys waiting for their father as if they have nothing else to do. When he finally appears, their joy is muted. Folarin doesn’t seem fully present, as if he’s on a mission to get something before leaving again, and perhaps the boys can sense that. But when he has them join him on his trip to Lagos, they brighten up, excited to go on an adventure and spend time with this man whom they rarely see but looms so large in their minds. It doesn’t take long for things to start going wrong – their bus runs out of gas – and much of the film’s tension arises from Folarin’s mounting frustration at things going wrong as he’s trying to be the best father he can to his boys. Dìrísù makes it painfully clear how much Folarin’s time away from his sons has hindered his ability to be a good father. Still, he admirably keeps trying to be a good role model anyway, giving the boys as many life lessons as possible. Through the observant eyes of the real-life brothers playing his sons, we see Folarin wrestle with the balance of getting what he needs – money that will help his sons survive in the long term – and giving the boys what they need in the moment. Dìrísù hauntingly suggests depths to Folarin that neither we nor the boys will ever see, giving the film an elegiac tone that increases in power the closer the film gets to its gut-punch of a climax.
The film’s final act kicks into high gear following the announcement of the annulment of the election results. Davies dials up the tension as everyone shifts their focus to getting out of Lagos as fast as possible. It’s only here where we can fully see the parallels between the boys’ journey and that of their country. Folarin has tried to lead his children towards a better life, but as strong as he is, his position is vulnerable, tied to systems and a way of life that needs to fall away in order to give the next generation the future they deserve. “My Father’s Shadow” mixes that strength and vulnerability into a potent cinematic concoction that holds you entranced all the way through. The window it opens on Nigerian life makes it an invaluable, important film, but its close observation of complex character dynamics makes it truly special.
