150 Word Review: 'My Father's Shadow' (2025)
A trip to the city
A father, desperate for work and rarely home, takes his two sons, ages 9 and 11, on an impromptu trip to the big city on the day of a rigged election.
My Father’s Shadow is an intimate family drama, but it’s also about Nigeria in the early 90s, when an authoritarian regime was strangling its people. Akinola Davies’ direction is raw, haunting; he fills every moment with intimate emotional textures. This is a deeply felt political portrait, too, universal and specific.
The sons, played by real-life siblings Godwin Chiemerie Egbo and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, are in awe of their father, but they are no longer children, and the world of adults is more dangerous than they expected. Who should they trust? As their father, Sope Dirisu, is tender and flawed, he loves his boys. Lagos is a character, too, a chaotic city full of strivers and soldiers ready to shoot.