My Father’s Shadow + Director’s Q&A at the Electric Palace

Akinola Davies Jr.’s BAFTA-winning feature debut is a vivid, beautifully realised, child’s-eye-view of a mysterious father and a country on the edge of political unrest.
Nigeria, 1993: Kid brothers Remi (Chibuike Marvelous Egbo) and Akin (Godwin Chimerie Egbo) get to spend the day with their estranged father Folarin (Sope Irisu) and visit dizzying, kaleidoscopic Lagos for the first time. But Folarin is on a mission, and his chances of success are threatened by the unfolding presidential election – the first since the military takeover 10 years before – and the chaos he fears will follow. Moving through frustrations and delays, the boys get to know their father on what becomes a significant and affecting emotional journey.
This is a gorgeous day-in-the-life-style coming-of-age film, sprawling and beautifully made. First-time director Akinola Davies Jr., who co-wrote with his brother Wale Davies, based the film partly on his own life, and it feels like a hazy memory, evocatively summoning the sights, sounds and smells of an eventful 24 hours in Lagos.
With director’s Q&A hosted by Anna Maria Nabirye, Afri-co-Lab.
This screening marks the launch of Blackity Black: a new regular screening strand spotlighting black film talent in collaboration with Afri-Co-Lab community hub based in St. Leonards.