Cannes standout ‘My Father’s Shadow’ marks a historic first for Nigeria

Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother Wale were both toddlers when their father died. Many years later, they began thinking about an idea for movie: What if they had gotten to spend a day with him?

In “My Father’s Shadow,” which is playing in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, the Davies brothers pay tribute to the father they hardly knew in a shattering father-son tale and one of the clear standouts of the festival.

The film, which premiered Sunday, was the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of wondering. Wale first sent Akinola a script — the first Wale had written and the first Akinola had read — in 2012.

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee-Deepak Dobriyal’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling 'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Movie Review: The final goodbye of Julian Fellowes’s beloved British soap

“With zero context, he sent it to me and I just had this real emotional reaction,” Akinola Davies said in an interview. “I actually cried when I read it because I had never conceived of the idea of spending a day with my father and what we would say to him and what he would be like.”

“My Father’s Shadow,” set over a single day in Lagos in 1993, is making history in Cannes. It’s the first Nigerian film in Cannes’ official selection, a milestone that Nigeria is celebrating. The country has its own large film industry, nicknamed Nollywood. But thanks to “My Father’s Shadow,” Nigeria set up its own national pavilion in Cannes’ international village this year.

“It means a lot to people back in Nigeria. It means we can exist on these platforms and our stories can exist in these spaces,” said Davies. “It’s a testament to talent that’s around in Nigeria. It’s a testament to the stories that are there. It’s a testament to the industry that’s flourishing.”

“My Father’s Shadow,” which Mubi acquired for North American distribution ahead of the festival, has connections to the United Kingdom, too, which is where Davies is based after growing up in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian press asks me a lot if the film is Nollywood or not Nollywood. I would say it is because all the technicians work in Nollywood,” said Davies. “You can’t borrow people from that whole industry and say it’s not part of it.”

“My Father’s Shadow,” shot in Lagos, also gets a tremendous amount of its texture and atmosphere from Nigeria. “Point a camera at anything in Lagos, and it’s so cinematic,” Davies says.

“I have this real sense of romance for Nigeria,” he adds. “Everyone’s like, ‘It’s super chaotic,’ but for me it’s actually very still. Just driving around in the car feels really cinematic to me. I just take pictures of people all the time.”

“Gangs of London” actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù plays the father, Folarin. At the family’s home outside Lagos, the boys (Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo) return home to unexpectedly find him there. They hardly ever see him — he works in Lagos — but Folarin takes them along on a trip in the city that will be revelatory for the boys.

To make the fictional version of their father, the Davies brothers had to try to remember what they could (Akinola was 20 months when his father died; Wale was 4 years old), listen to stories and weed out their imagined memories. Their father rapidly developed epilepsy and died during a seizure, lying in bed next to their mother. Akinola is named after him.

“It’s kind of the confluence of memory, dream and hearsay,” Davies says. “How do you work through all of that to create a portrait?”

“My Father’s Shadow” is set on a pivotal day for Nigeria, when Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who took power in a coup, refuses to accept the results of a democratic election. On this day, not just the conjured memory of the Davies’ father but the dreams of a nation are put on hold.

“My Father’s Shadow,” though, represents the realization of Davies’ filmmaking aspirations. His first feature, following the brothers’ BAFTA-nominated short “Lizard,” confirms Davies as a major up-and-coming director. More than that, though, “My Father’s Shadow” is deeply cathartic for him.

“Being the age I am, I’ve done my grieving,” Davies says. “But just before we shot, I realized I was still grieving. Our prep started about a week after the anniversary of my dad’s passing. Every year, my mum calls me or texts me. I took my brother to his grave, put flowers down and made kind of a ceremony out of it.”