Manny Ita –
British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. has reached a significant milestone in international cinema with the North American release of his debut feature, My Father’s Shadow, a production that previously became the first Nigerian feature film to enter the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection. The semi-autobiographical drama, co-written with his brother Wale Davies, examines themes of grief, memory and political upheaval, unfolding over a single day in Lagos in 1993 amid the unrest that followed General Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of the presidential election.
Set against that turbulent political backdrop, the film reimagines a day spent with the brothers’ late father, Folarin, portrayed by Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. The character was developed from fragments of family history, imagination and secondhand accounts, as the brothers were toddlers when their father died from epilepsy. The project began more than a decade ago when Wale Davies shared an early script inspired by their shared absence of concrete memories. Recalling his reaction, Akinola Davies Jr. said, “I actually cried when I read it because I had never conceived of the idea of spending a day with my father and what we would say to him and what he would be like.”
In shaping the narrative, the brothers blended recollection and invention. The director described the creative process as navigating “the confluence of memory, dream and hearsay,” seeking to reconcile imagined conversations with the limited factual knowledge they had of their father’s life and sudden death.
While the film is a British-Nigerian co-production and served as the United Kingdom’s official Oscar submission, Davies Jr. has maintained that its creative foundation is firmly rooted in Nigeria’s film industry. Addressing ongoing debates about its classification, he said, “The Nigerian press asks me a lot if the film is Nollywood or not Nollywood. I would say it is because all the technicians work in Nollywood,” adding, “It’s a testament to talent that’s around in Nigeria. It’s a testament to the stories that are there. It’s a testament to the industry that’s flourishing.” He also noted that Lagos itself shaped the film’s visual identity, describing the city as inherently cinematic despite its reputation for disorder.
My Father’s Shadow arrives in North American cinemas after an extensive award season campaign that included 12 British Independent Film Award nominations and a Gotham Award for breakthrough director. Despite its growing international recognition, Davies Jr. said the project remained deeply personal. “Being the age I am, I’ve done my grieving,” he said, “But just before we shot, I realized I was still grieving.”
The film is being distributed by Mubi, concluding a decade-long creative undertaking by the Davies brothers to reconstruct their father’s presence through cinema while contributing a historic chapter to Nigeria’s global film footprint.
