My Father’s Shadow: Dreams of fatherhood in 90s Lagos
- Feb 22
- 2 min read
Akinola Davies’s lauded hit ’My Father’s Shadow’ is a both a universal story of the challenges of fatherhood and a time-portal into 1990s Nigeria.
It follows two wide-eyed, young brothers (played by real-life brothers Chibuike Marvellous and Godwin Egbo) on an apparently spontaneous day out in Lagos with their enigmatic dad, Folarin (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù).
The boys (Remi and Akin) accompany their father around the bustling capital as he attempts to collect his long-overdue wages from an unruly boss.
Often shot from below, the film gives you a child’s perspective on the city: eliciting excitement one moment at the energetic old friends at a buzzing local bar, and dread the next as they dodge lethal traffic, and worse.
Davies also has an attention to detail which transports you to that time and place, making it especially evocative for those in the cinema who really lived it (a rare exception where talking in the cinema adds to the experience with people chatting and pointing throughout).
Making a film from the point of view of a child also allows Davies to bend the rules of reality. Speaking to the Sight and Sound recently, the director said: “Cinematically, children give you permission to dream, to make…supernatural drama. A child’s perspective allows you to go into dreamlike vignettes…”.
Indeed the film feels deliberately warped, with the day seemingly to stretch over an implausibly long period as if a patchwork of memories, maybe altered with time. And the brothers’ narrative arc suggests a period of years, not hours, as their father goes from furious patriarch (who can make the wind surge with his call), to a wounded, vulnerable man doing everything he can to keep his family and community together and, ultimately, failing.
Given the scope for imagination the director had given himself, the film might have benefited from a bit more adventure and variety visually: few shots or images stuck with me after leaving the cinema.
Regardless, it’s density of magnetic characters and ideas makes it a gripping and emotional watch.
6.5/10
