My Father's Shadow (2025)

Akinola Davies Jr | UK, Nigeria | 2025 | 94 min | PG Two young brothers spend a miraculous day with their preoccupied father in Lagos, 1993; around them hangs the fate of democracy. Remi and Akin’s father works at a factory in the city, often leaving his family in the village for weeks. When they find him at home one morning, the brothers jump at his offer to spend the day together in Lagos. They are drawn into the chaotic movements of city life, the moments of stillness in between, and an unfamiliar intimacy with their father. This is set against the backdrop of a nation growing restless anticipating the results of a highly contested election, the disruption of which seeps into the family’s time together. My Father’s Shadow captures the yearning for a father’s love and the bittersweet acceptance of its limitations, akin to the hopes of a country on the cusp of change.