Inside the Grand Theatre Lumiere, one of cinema’s great cathedrals in Cannes, France, Akinola Davies Jr. stood, acknowledging the applause of over 2,000 peers. The British Nigerian director had just received a commendation from the jury for his first feature, “My Father’s Shadow,” a breakthrough not just for him, but for a nation.
“Overwhelmed and overjoyed” was how Davies Jr. remembered the moment. He’d seen photographs of previous Cannes Film Festivals; the premieres, the awards, the standing ovations. “I don’t think it ever pops into your head that’s what yours will be like.”
Last May, “My Father’s Shadow” became the first Nigerian film to feature in the festival’s official selection, planting a flag for Africa’s most populous country and the world’s second most prolific moviemaking nation. Nine months, many garlands and one Nigerian homecoming later, the film is releasing in cinemas in UK on February 6 and the US on February 13.
A soulful, semi-autobiographical tale of paternal estrangement and loss directed by Davies Jr. and written with his brother Wale Davies, the film stars British Nigerian actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù (“Slow Horses”) as the titular father, who takes his two sons to Lagos in the aftermath of the 1993 Nigerian general election.
The Davies brothers lost their father when they were young, a tragedy channeled into Wale Davies’ screenplay, conceived over a decade ago. The story is a devastating act of wish fulfillment: a rare day of bonding between two boys and their father, subtly conveying the sacrifices he’s made to support his family, and trying to impart some wisdom along the way.
“I remember reading it in bed and weeping,” Davies Jr. told CNN, in one of his first interviews about the film, at Cannes last year.
“When you experience loss, you just face it front on … to have a short story that considers a different perspective, and mining that loss, I found extremely emotional.”
The father in their film, Folarin, was partly inspired by their own. Friends and family would share stories about their father, said Davies Jr. “It was good and bad in a way, because it’s exciting to hear these stories. But equally, they had the stories and we didn’t.”
“The film at its core is about memory … How do you know what is memory and what was told to you? After a period of time, it all becomes enmeshed into one.”
After the success of their BAFTA-nominated 2020 short film “Lizard,” the brothers received production backing to make “My Father’s Shadow” from the UK, Ireland and Nigeria, including BBC Films, Element Pictures and Fatherland Productions, a company run by the Davies brothers and producer Funmbi Ogunbanwo out of Lagos.
The Nigerian British coproduction was shot on location in 2024, with a predominantly Nigerian and diaspora cast and crew.
Shooting in Lagos was “like climbing a mountain every day,” said Davies Jr., but the city was indispensable to the story. “I wanted to capture the essence of the city from a very grounded level,” said the director. “A lot of people see the high end, nouveau riche aspects of Lagos, but what is really the lifeblood of the city is how working-class people move and operate within (it).”
The production scouted sites with old infrastructure befitting the 1993 setting, including Balogun market, the National Theatre and Apapa Amusement Park, shooting in two states and nearly a dozen and half locations.
“In the film there’s a line, ‘Nigeria is hard’ — and it is a hard country (to film in),” said producer Rachel Dargavel of Element Pictures, Irish powerhouse producers behind “Normal People” and many of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films. “There were things that would happen on a day-to-day basis (that) blew my mind. But for Funmbi and her team, that’s something that they deal with when they’re shooting productions.”
“I don’t think we would have the film we have, had I parachuted in with my European crew,” she added. “I think we would have failed.”
The production involved members of the local community, said Ogunbanwo. For each location, “leave this (space) slightly better than we met it,” was the ethos, she said. “I think that gave us a certain level of access which was unprecedented,” Davies Jr. added.
As accurate as the setting might’ve been, the film would not work without its three central performances.
Spearheading the film is Dìrísù’s quiet and powerful turn as the patriarch. “Folarin is not their father,” the actor stressed, referring to the Davies, though the role came with significant responsibilities.
“I still wanted to honor fatherhood, and honor what it meant to be a Nigerian father, specifically in that time. The weight of expectation of being the head of your household, the main provider, and the difficulties that come with that is a really interesting conversation about masculinity — both general masculinity and African masculinity — in the film.”
It was the first time the actor had worked in Nigeria. “I felt such pride in returning to the country; to be able to contribute to the cultural tapestry,” he said. “The history of Nigerian cinema is deep and rich, so to have contributed to that really edifies my sense of Nigerian-ness.”
Dìrísù was paired with Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo as Folarin’s sons Aki and Remi. The real-life brothers were making their screen debuts at nine and 11 years old at the time of filming. “Finding them was a feat, because we went through over 200 boys,” Ogunbanwo recalled.
“We first met in rehearsals on my second or third day,” said Dìrísù, who said he inadvertently took on the role of a surrogate father off-screen during the shoot. “It’s remarkable the journey they went on as performers, considering that they’d never acted before.”
The family drama is set against the 1993 election, which military leader Ibrahim Babangida annulled, snatching away an expected victory for Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the Social Democratic Party. Civilian rule of Nigeria was put on hold.
“My dad was a journalist at the time and he raced back home … turned on the TV and cried. That’s not something you forget,” said Ogunbanwo.
Loss permeates “My Father’s Shadow,” which reckons with Nigeria’s past in ways rarely seen in the nation’s cinema. It is sad, serious and tender. Texturally, tonally, the film is a world away from the prevailing image of Nigeria on screen; one still largely defined by the action and melodrama of Nollywood.
But times are changing. The country is going through a quiet revolution, with a growing cohort of independent filmmakers gaining traction with arthouse titles. In recent years, Nigeria accomplished a list of firsts, with films premiering in competition at festivals in Berlin, Sundance and now Cannes, each time bringing a different perspective to the big screen.
The outstanding question is whether these films can find an audience back in Nigeria, a nation with few theaters and rampant piracy — obstacles to independent cinema’s sustainability.
“My Father’s Shadow” debuted in Nigerian cinemas last September, packing screens in Lagos and Abuja.
“What really took me aback was a lot of the engagement and conversation made around the film, with people speaking to their parents about what happened in ’93,” said Davies Jr.
“My Father’s Shadow” made stops at major film festivals in Toronto, London and Busan last fall. It was submitted by the UK for best international feature film at the Academy Awards and received 12 nominations at the British Independent Film Awards (Davies Jr. won best director). At the Gotham awards in the US, Davies Jr. won best breakthrough director and Dìrísù won outstanding lead performance, and at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January, Variety magazine named Davies Jr. as a director to watch. At this month’s BAFTA awards, the brothers are nominated for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.
The film also picked up awards at festivals in India, China and Morocco. Davies Jr. said he was particularly proud of the love the film has received in the Global South.
The past few months have been “topsy turvy” and the accolades “wonderful,” said the director, who describes himself as “quite a sensitive person” at heart.
“Fundamentally, this film has been incredible in terms of building my profile as a director,” he said.
“It’s been incredible at showing my crew and my team what they’re capable of in the right circumstances. It’s a reminder that film is not a singular undertaking, it takes a group and community. And I’m just really proud of that.”