‘My Father’s Shadow’ review: Sope Dirisu stars in this electric debut set in 1990s Nigeria

Dir: Akinola Davies Jr. UK/Nigeria. 2025. 95mins

Nigeria, 1993. A crucial election has just run, and the people are hopeful of a win for Social Democrat Party presidential candidate MKO Abiola and a fresh start for the country following a decade under military rule. And for two young brothers, aged eight and eleven, it’s an equally momentous day: the father they hardly know lets them tag along from their sleepy village home into the overwhelming bustle and scrum of Lagos. This terrific semi-autobiographical first feature from filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr, which stars Gangs of London’s Sope Dirisu as the boys’ magnetic father Folarin, is a thrillingly vital account of the moment when everything changes.

A thrillingly vital account of the moment when everything changes

It’s an eye-catching and accomplished debut from Davies, a writer, director and video artist whose 2020 short film Lizard was BAFTA-nominated and won the Sundance prize for Best Short Film. With a textural quality to the sound design and a fragmented, frayed patchwork of real archival footage, there are similarities here with RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys. There’s also a kinship with the work of fellow West African diaspora member Mati Diop – like Atlantics, this is a film that combines an Africa-infused energy with a European arthouse sensibility to powerful effect. Le Pacte picked up French distribution ahead of the picture’s premiere in Un Certain Regard and this is likely to be a title of considerable interest for buyers and programmers alike.

The child’s eye view of a seismic time of political upheaval is not an entirely new storytelling approach, but Davies breathes fresh life into the device. The boys play a symbolic role as well as a literal one, standing for the Nigerian people who feel neglected and let down by their country, but who dare to hope that better times are just beginning. His work with his young novice actors – Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo play 11-year-old Remi and his younger brother Akin, respectively – is sensitive; their fractious, combative relationship is as much a living thing as any of the characters.

There’s a lovely moment early on when the boys, left to their own devices while their mother heads to the village, play with crudely-drawn paper cutouts of famous wrestlers (The Undertaker is highly prized by both, and is a flash point for one of the many bickering skirmishes between them). Like the curious kids transposed into an unfamiliar world, the camera is hungry and restless, fixating on tiny details when the bigger picture becomes too overwhelming.

The day in Lagos takes in a visit to Folarin’s workplace, where he vainly tries to pin down a supervisor who owes him months of unpaid wages. Elsewhere, the father shares his favourite haunts – a beach, a down-at-heel fairground – and eating places, where he is greeted like a returning hero. Those he meets call him ‘Kapo’, an Ogu name signifying hope. The boys’ keen eyes take in the respect that their father is shown, along with the charged glare from a woman he encounters at a thronging bar full of drinkers celebrating what they believe is a win for MKO Abiola. Yet the festive spirit tips over into violence when the election is annulled by military dictator Ibrahim Babangida. The chaos and heightened tensions take on a disorientating quality for the children and for the audience; one thing is certain however – Folarin’s fate is inextricably linked to that of his country. 

“I’ll see you in my dreams”, a young boy’s voice tells his absent father; it’s a recurring line of voice-over that bookends the film. That, together with a potent but unexpected final scene, adds a degree of ambiguity to this heady, bonding day of adventure. We’re left wondering whether the intense, overwhelming day of new experiences happened at all. Was it dreamed up in the heart of a child starved of contact with a father who spends long months working away from home? Or was it a pre-emptive act of closure by a man who, for various reasons, suspects that his time on earth might be drawing to a close?