Review: A wise child knows its father
Memory can be sharp yet foggy– this film views the father-son paradigm through a dual lens.
Wilfred Okiche
My Father’s Shadow is a quietly accomplished debut autofiction feature by Akinola Davies Jr., with the screenplay by his brother, rapper Wale Davies. Two boys reckon with memory – personal and national – as they spend a magical day with their mercurial father (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù).
The 1993 presidential election is pivotal in Nigerian history. The ensuing military regime aborted the democratic dreams of a generation. Childhood and nationhood destroyed are the pathos Davies Jr. explores.
In the film, Dad works in the city while the family resides in the country. Mum provides a warm presence, but her relationship with her husband is troubled. The boys (played by siblings Godwin and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo) idealise their father, perhaps more for his absence. The film is told through the eyes of the boys as they come to understand their father better, particularly as he embraces his vulnerability.
The father, played by Dìrísù in early scenes as an unquestionable, authoritative figure, is larger than life. This infallibility melts away slowly as his sons see him humiliated by the regime’s brutality. In the emotional climax, a memorable beach scene where buried wounds are excavated, the children see their father for the complicated, troubled human being he is.
My Father’s Shadow was shot on 16mm film to capture the visual decay of Lagos in the 1990s, as well as the hazy slipperiness of memory. The film runs into trouble backdropping knotty political history into an otherwise immaculate family saga. Davies Jr. feels a need to explain Nigeria to his audiences, bringing some performativity to a film that wants to exist somewhere between dreams, memory, and imagination.
