Akinola Davies Jr. makes history with My Father’s Shadow at Cannes

Africanews (in English)

Akinola Davies Jr. makes history with My Father’s Shadow at Cannes  Set in Lagos in 1993, My Father’s Shadow is a poignant meditation on fatherhood, nationhood, and brotherhood.  READ MORE : http://www.africanews.com/2025/06/11/akinola-davies-jr-makes-history-with-my-fathers-shadow-at-cannes  Subscribe on our Dailymotion channel and receive all the latest news from the continent.    Africanews is available in English and French.  Website : www.africanews.com  Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/africanews.channel/  Twitter : https://twitter.com/africanews

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00:00You never really set out to be the first in anything and we certainly weren't aware that

00:20it would be the first Nigerian film in selection. I think there's been Nigerian film to Cannes before

00:24but obviously not in selection. So the experience was pretty overwhelming but like in the best way.

00:32I think it's incredible to show work in a place that's full of cinephiles, people who sort of love

00:42the craft and a place that has like such massive prestige. It being the first Nigerian film, being

00:48in Cannes, Nigerians have really sort of like caught on to that and representing Nigeria to me is like

00:54a real badge of honour. I'm extremely proud to be Nigerian, proud to be African in general and I

01:02think that our stories are incredibly universal but I think there's probably become an increasing

01:08market for us, for nuanced versions of our stories to travel across the world basically.

01:16You know what? Go and wear your clothes. You are following me to Lagos today.

01:22But when I said you shouldn't leave the house? Then we should wait for her.

01:27And why don't you stay and wait for her? You can tell her I went with daddy to Lagos but she puts you in charge.

01:33Hopefully your mummy comes back before we go but otherwise we just have to leave a message for her.

01:43Go now. Sharp, sharp. I don't have time.

01:48My Father's Shadow is a film about fatherhood, it's about nationhood, it's about brotherhood.

01:56These two brothers spending the gift of the day with their father who they don't regularly see.

02:01He takes them around Lagos to see the sort of struggles that he has to go through to provide

02:09for his family. They question his sort of absence and hold into account but on that given day that

02:16they're spending together there is a big election result that gets announced and he has to get them

02:21back home. I was in Nigeria during that period and so was my brother and we evidently knew that something

02:27was going on from the responses of like my mother and uncles and other family. You know we're probably

02:34a bit too young to understand the politics of it at the time but I think in our research we realized that

02:39it was quite a pivotal moment, formative moment in the country's history. Something that maybe hasn't

02:46particularly been well documented maybe up until now and also just like a really important story to sort of

02:54tell because Nigeria I think has a big part to play in the sort of growth and development of Africa in

03:02general and even the world in general and I think you know to a certain extent it hasn't quite fulfilled

03:08that potential yet. It's had you know like shimmering moments of being able to do that but I think in order

03:14to really sort of shift the dial and move things forward we have to be able to tell our own stories

03:23in a way that's nuanced for us as opposed to like an outside perspective. So I think

03:32I think 1993 holds a lot in terms of Nigerian, contemporary Nigerian history and I think it's important to

03:42know what happened and who was around in that period for sure.

03:54Why are you taking that for all our business?

04:01I shoot a lot on film. I love the pace of shooting on film. I love the imperfections of shooting on film.

04:11I think it's a very generous way to work making a film because you get to spend more time with your

04:15cast and crew and you get to rehearse. Two of my three leads have never been in a film before

04:20and I didn't think I didn't want to put them in an environment where we can nitpick their performance.

04:26It was challenging to say the least because there's no labs on the continent so we had to

04:31we had to do like a shuttle of things going back and forth so we wouldn't see the rushes for

04:36almost a week so we couldn't strike sets for a week but thematically we were shooting a period

04:43film so shooting on film really helped but politically I'd probably say I wanted to see

04:49the Lagos I grew up in on the most beautiful medium in my opinion and I don't think I had been exposed

04:56to a lot of that in my youth so in as much as possible when I shoot in Nigeria I want to shoot

05:01on film because I think Nigeria and Lagos is incredibly cinematic and it deserves to be on

05:07celluloid. Hopefully my father's shadow is like breaking ground for next generation of filmmakers

05:17to see that it's possible to do it you know obviously like I come with a certain level of

05:21privilege I was born in the UK my films financed in the UK predominantly but obviously and co-produced

05:30by a Nigerian production company with Nigerian talent Nigerian crew so there's a lot of collaboration

05:36in there but obviously you know I have to also say that it comes with a certain level of privilege

05:43you know having Mubi, Element, Match Factory, Fremantle, BBC, BFI all involved you know that might

05:52not be the case for every filmmaker but I think you know I want to acknowledge that and say that

05:58there is a way to sort of get to this point but obviously it takes a lot of collaboration a lot of

06:04forward thinking and a lot of groundwork I think Nollywood is like incredibly rich it's got a

06:10beautiful tapestry in terms of storytelling in terms of creative in terms of technical prowess

06:15crews and actors and it's something I wear even more as a badge of honor in terms of representing because

06:24I think it's also a young fledgling industry maybe now there's a commercial necessity in Nollywood but

06:32hopefully films like mine start to branch out to create more space for art house sort of narratives

06:39more dramas more nuanced dramas and evidently the audiences are quite interested in that

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