‘My Father’s Shadow’ Review: The Double Frame of Memory

For the brothers Akin (Godwin Egbo) and Remi (Chibuike Marvellous Egbo), an ordinary hot morning in rural Nigeria becomes one of the most significant days of their childhood. Their father, Folarin (Sope Dirisu), says he must head back to Lagos to pick up his paycheck and, on a whim, decides the boys should come along; delighted, they set out on a day that will stay with them.

The film, Akinola Davies Jr.’s feature directorial debut written with his brother Wale Davies, draws on a fiercely personal layer of love and memory and unfolds against the backdrop of the contentious 1993 presidential elections. Dirisu gives a charismatic, mesmerizing performance as a man who is tender with his family even as sorrow and rage bubble beneath the surface.

“My Father’s Shadow” works in a double frame: we see events through the children’s eye line but filtered by adult recollection.

Nigeria, Lagos

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