The strength of My Father’s Shadow is in its heartwarming subtlety. On the surface, the 90-minute film is about a stern but loving father, Folarin, who brings his two sons, Remi and Akin, on a day trip to Lagos. But the semi-autobiographical film, and director Akinola Davies Jr.’s feature-length debut, is a portrait of how a single day can hold a lifetime. The first Nigerian film chosen as Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection, Davies Jr. and his brother Wale spent over 10 years writing a story rooted in the loss of their own father.
Set against the backdrop of one of Nigeria’s most important presidential elections in 1993 — the first since a military coup 10 years earlier — Folarin (Gangs of London star Sope Dirisu) heads to Lagos to retrieve six months of backpay from his job, bringing his boys (played by real-life brothers Chibuike Marvellous and Godwin Chimerie Egbo) along for the ride. It’s an immersive dive into the sights and sounds of Lagos, captured by the textured haze of cinematographer Jermaine Edwards 16mm camera. Still and intentional, the camera lingers on small details, like a glimpse of a newspaper’s front page on a crowded city-bound bus, hinting at the political tension surrounding an otherwise normal day.
The bus runs out of fuel halfway to the city, but once they arrive, they’re met with a heavy military presence, while news of a tragedy spreads through frequent radio broadcasts. Coupled with local protests and high taxi rates due to a national fuel shortage, the effects of an authoritarian regime on day-to-day life are obvious. The anger is palpable, but the film is rooted much more in the personal than the political, focused on the connection between the sons and a father they’re desperate to spend more time with. The trio ventures out to explore the city, choosing their future cars, stopping for food, and visiting an empty amusement park where Folarin says he brought their mother on dates years ago. After a visit to the beach, they head to a cafe where the mounting tension comes to a head in more ways than one.
Told primarily from the boys’ perspective, the heart of the adventure rests in the emotional gap between what they see and what they understand about their father, from his usual absence, his relationship with their mother, interactions with old friends they run into, hints at his infidelity, and even his unexplained nosebleeds. Many of the scenes play out like warm childhood memories: dream-like, defined by emotion, and not always clear until adulthood adds in some much-needed context. The boys may not fully understand all that’s being passed down to them, whether it's stories, names, or the instinct to protect, but the film invites you to sit with the weight of it just the same. What is clear is the bond between them and their ability to endure through both joy, grief and everything in between.
It’s that understanding, of knowing that some things only make sense in hindsight but still finding comfort in the things that never do, that gives My Father’s Shadow its power. While many films try to say everything, Davies Jr knew exactly what to leave unsaid.
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