My Father’s Shadow
Screening this April at Unseen Nairobi
There are films that tell stories, and there are films that haunt you long after you leave the cinema. My Father’s Shadow, directed by Akinola Davies Jr., belongs firmly in the latter category. Set against the charged backdrop of Lagos during the 1993 elections, it traces a father’s uneasy return to his two young sons and the quiet reckoning that follows. What unfolds is a tender, beautifully restrained meditation on family, memory, and the invisible threads that bind us, even when time and distance try to fray them.
Davies’ eye for atmosphere is extraordinary. Lagos is not just a setting here, it’s a living, breathing character. The city hums and swells, its light and shadow dancing across faces, markets, and moments that feel both familiar and timeless. The cinematography has a grainy, nostalgic texture, evoking the intimacy of home videos and the sweep of political history all at once. Every frame feels intentional, every silence heavy with things unsaid.
The film doesn’t rush. It unfolds like memory itself, looping, tender, hesitant… and in doing so, it captures something profoundly true about how we live with the ghosts of our parents. The father, played with a quiet ache, is neither hero nor villain. He is human, deeply flawed, trying in his own imperfect way to reconnect before it’s too late. The two young boys mirror that uncertainty, their wide-eyed wonder giving the film its emotional heartbeat.
What makes My Father’s Shadow remarkable is its refusal to separate the personal from the political. The story of a family becomes the story of a nation: fathers and sons navigating expectations, loss, and legacy. It’s a film that invites reflection on who we are, what we inherit, and what it means to break free from the past while still honouring it.
My Father’s Shadow is one of those quiet triumphs that remind us why we go to the movies: not just to escape, but to remember. Don’t miss it when it screens this month at Unseen Nairobi — it’s the kind of film that stays with you, long after the credits fade.
Tickets on Mookh
