David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Sope Dirisu’

My Father’s Shadow

Director: Akinola Davies Jr

Cast: Sope Dirisu, Godwin Egbo, Chibuke Marvellous Egbo

Running Time: 1 hour and 34 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Film Festival: European Film Festival 2026

Language: English

After premiering in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, British Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr’s impressive debut film My Father’s Shadow is a touching and poignant story of a journey a father takes with his two sons through Lagos, Nigeria in the summer of 1993 on the eve of the announcement that the presidential elections had been nullified resulting in catastrophic political unrest in the country.

What makes My Father’s Shadow unique, is that it is told through the eyes of two young brothers aged 8 and 11, Remi and Akin played respectively by Chibuke Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo.

As the film begins the boys are playing in an impoverished yard with cut out paper action figures, imagining a world of superhero’s and villains. The sudden arrival of their big strong father Folarin expertly played by Sope Dirisu (Mothering Sunday), who decides on a whim to take his sons with him on an arduous journey into downtown Lagos to collect some back pay owed to him.

As Folarin and his sons travel from the Yoruba village into Lagos, their transport is communal, getting rides in taxis with fuel shortages and then with motorbikes until their final arrival in the bustling and vibrant centre of the biggest city in Nigeria.

Remi and Akin are oblivious to the simmering political unrest that is about to occur. The brothers relish the time with their father who visits his work colleague and even eats at a café where he sees his city mistress.

Akinola Davies Jr’s film is filled with foreshadowing images of vultures circling over the city as his camera pans across Lagos encompassing the diversity of religion both Christian and Muslim and also the vibrancy of the city with an authentic African energy.

My Father’s Shadow does employ non-European film techniques whereby every frame is filled with the community and how they relate to each other, avoiding making the individual the focus. However the narrative is slow and the ending of this film will leave viewers pondering whether the journey was imaginary or remembered.

The best scene in the film is on the beach in Lagos when Folarin tells his sons how much he loves them as they recover from swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a beautifully shot scene which specifically highlights masculine vulnerability and that sometimes tenuous connection between a father and his sons, bordering on honour, humour and hero worship.

A prime example of vital African cinema and made history as the first Nigerian film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival, My Father’s Shadow is a surreal and significant achievement although the film’s narrative which was co-written with the director’s brother Wale Davies could have been stronger and more specific.

My Father’s Shadow gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is enjoyable.  Recommended viewing.

Mothering Sunday

Director: Eva Husson

Cast: Odessa Young, Josh O’Connor, Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite), Oscar winner Glenda Jackson (Women in Love, A Touch of Class), Patsy Ferran, Emma D’Arcy, Caroline Harker, Emily Woof, Sope Dirisu, Craig Crosbie, Simon Shepherd

Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

In a similar tone to director Joe Wright’s film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, French director Eva Husson boldly adapts acclaimed British author Graham Swift’s 2016 period romance novel Mothering Sunday to the big screen featuring some startlingly fresh and candid performances by Odessa Young and Josh O’Connor as the ill-fated lovers.

Rising star Josh O’Connor best known for his portrayal of the young Prince Charles in the Netflix series The Crown plays the only surviving son Paul Sheringham, a wealthy aristocrat who has an explicit affair with the house maid of his parents’ best friends The Nivens, wonderfully played respectively by Oscar winners Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite).

The nubile and unconventional housemaid in question is the beautiful Jane Fairchild, gorgeously played by the Australian actress Odessa Young.

Set almost entirely on a beautiful Spring day on the 30^th March 1924, Jane Fairchild takes advantage of her liberty and commits to an illicit liaison with Paul Sheringham at his family estate before he is meant to meet his parents and future fiancée Emma Hobday played by Emma D’Arcy for a lavish lunch. Much of the film takes place during this gorgeous day as Paul and Jane spend a forbidden and passionate morning together while some of Paul’s stuffy family members and friends are expecting his arrival at a very elegant lunch at Henley on Thames.

Mothering Sunday is a French take on how they view the British upper classes and director Eva Husson beautifully uses the young lovers in all their nudity to expose the decay of the rigid class lines that used to keep the British class system intact, which began unravelling spectacularly between the two World Wars.

Without the moral depth or psychological complexity of Atonement, Mothering Sunday is a stunning and sensual period film about forbidden love and the journey one young woman takes to becoming a writing, her courage to change her accepted place in society and evolve from being a housemaid to eventually becoming a famous writer.

At the end of the film the central character is seen in contemporary times and Jane Fairchild as a mature and established writer is portrayed by 1970’s Oscar winner and screen legend Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class, Women in Love) as she ruminates thoughtfully on her success at becoming a famous writer while looking back on that one fateful encounter with a posh young man which would change her life and inspire her creative genius.

Mothering Sunday is a languid British period film which is drawn out in parts but equally provocative.

Held together by a top calibre supporting cast, Mothering Sunday gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is worth seeing especially for the central performances by the two young and talented stars: Josh O’Connor and Odessa Young.