Powerful new drama with 98% on Rotten Tomatoes is available to watch now

The partly Irish film features one of the stars of Gangs of London and Slow Horses in the lead role.

An Irish-Nigeria-UK co-production, the movie is set in 1993 against the backdrop of the Nigerian election and takes place nearly entirely over one day.

The story begins with two pre-teen brothers, Aki (Godwin Egbo) and Remi (Chibuike Marvelous Egbo), playing in the countryside before unexpectedly running into their father, Folarin (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù - Gangs of London, Slow Horses).

The boys have not seen their dad in a long time. Folarin works in the faraway metropolis that is Lagos, in order to provide for the kids.

When the children beg to spend more time with him, the father lets them accompany him as he travels to the city with the goal of collecting some long-overdue wages.

The trio spend the day together in Lagos, quietly reckoning with their relationship while navigating a city on the edge of a democratic crisis.

My Father's Shadow Trailer

My Father Shadow was made by two brothers making their feature debuts, Akinola Davies (director and co-writer) and Wale Davies (co-writer).

The pair have spoken openly about how the drama's story is inspired by their own personal experience and family history. They have also discussed how important it was to them to shoot the movie on the actual streets of Lagos, using a predominantly Nigerian cast and crew.

Perhaps these are the reasons why the end product feels so authentic. Between the rich soundscapes of the bustling Lagos streets, how the characters interact, and the way Akinola Davies emphasises specific details, including the food children eat, the film feels so atmospheric and tangible, a quality which really helps viewers stay engaged, even as the story briefly slows down to become more meditative.

That said, while Nigeria is so integral to My Father's Shadow, this is a movie with a universal appeal.

Any viewer can relate to the central two young boys. All they want is to spend time with their father. When the day for that finally comes, it is joyous. But it's also tinged with melancholy, as the boys learn some hard truths, as well as distress, as the family are caught up in the social unrest.

Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù gives a beautiful and haunting turn as a good but flawed man. Even as he faces great obstacles, he still tries to do what he thinks is best for his sons, imparting knowledge to them wherever he can.

In one of the most powerful scenes in My Father's Shadow, in which he speaks about the loss of a loved one, he tells them: “The memories that cause you pain when someone leaves are the same ones that will comfort you later".

Memory is what the movie is really about. Akinola Davies uses hazy scene transitions, as well as off-kilter visual motifs, to create an ever-growing but hard-to-pin-down feeling that what the audience is witnessing isn't the objective truth.

Instead, it may be a narrative created from fragments of recollections and information pieced together later, something which may tie into the movie's hard-hitting yet slightly enigmatic closing denouement.

Occasionally, the narrative structure and directing flourishes feel iterative of Charlotte Wells' incredible 2022 drama Aftersun, another semi-autobiographical work about memory and a child's relationship with their father.

But it's an undeniably effective approach that pays off emotionally. Much like Wells, we can't wait to see what the Davies brothers do next.

My Father's Shadow is in cinemas now.