My Father's Shadow (2025)
June 1993 is a date that carries enormous weight in Nigerian history. The military government of Ibrahim Babangida annulled what is widely regarded as the freest election the country had ever held, a result that would have seen Moshood Abiola take the presidency. The cancellation triggered waves of civil unrest, protests, and a general strike that brought Lagos, West Africa's most populous city, to a grinding, tense halt. It is into this specific, charged moment that My Father's Shadow drops its story: two young boys spending rare, unplanned time with a father they barely know, on streets that are themselves on the verge of something breaking. The political backdrop is not ornamental. It mirrors, at a national scale, the instability and deferred hope that define the film's quieter, domestic drama. For a parallel in terms of how political convulsion can press down on ordinary family life and produce something genuinely affecting, it is worth reading the site's review of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, where a similar tension between history and intimacy is very much at play.
Akinola Davies Jr. arrives at feature length with a body of work that already had critics paying close attention. His short film Lizard won the BAFTA for British Short Film in 2021, and his visual sensibility, rooted in close observation and a documentary-adjacent patience with faces and spaces, was evident even there. My Father's Shadow is semi-autobiographical, drawn from Davies Jr.'s own childhood, and that personal source gives the material a texture that scripted fiction rarely replicates so convincingly. The production is a co-venture between BBC Film, the BFI, Fremantle, Element Pictures, and Electric Theatre Collective, a combination of Irish and British institutional backing alongside commercial partners that allowed for a shoot on location in Lagos with what appears to be a relatively modest but thoughtfully deployed budget. The result is a film that looks considered rather than expensive, which suits the story entirely. Fans of Nigerian cinema with a similar eye for the everyday should find common ground with the site's coverage of Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), another film that finds the dramatic potential in Lagos street-level life without reaching for easy sentiment. And for those drawn to films that place children at the centre of genuinely precarious worlds, the site's review of Capernaum makes for useful reading alongside this one.
The adult anchor of the film is Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, a British-Nigerian actor who has been building a quietly impressive record across stage and screen, perhaps best known internationally for his lead role in the 2020 thriller His House. He brings a physicality and a kind of restrained emotional weight to the father that the film leans on heavily, because so much of what needs to be communicated between his character and the boys cannot be, or is not, said out loud. Playing the two brothers are real-life siblings Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo, a casting choice that pays dividends immediately in terms of the natural, unforced rhythm of their scenes together. Non-professional or first-time child performers can occasionally feel coached into performance, but here the dynamic between the brothers registers as genuine. Akereli David and Owa Orire Jeremiah round out the principal cast in supporting roles that help flesh out the Lagos world the boys are moving through.
Akinola Davies Jr.’s 2025 film My Father’s Shadow hits you with a profound piece of advice: "everything is sacrifice, you just have to make sure you don't sacrifice the wrong thing." Based heavily on the semi-autobiography of the director himself, this is a deeply moving coming-of-age story centred on two young brothers who rarely get to spend quality time with their father. Interestingly, the mother barely features in the narrative at all; the film is entirely, laser-focused on the complex, fractured dynamic between the father and his sons, exploring the quiet tragedy of their distance and the unspoken love that bridges it.
What makes the film so visually and emotionally compelling is the clear cinematic lineage Davies Jr. is drawing from. I understand the director heavily used Hirokazu Kore-eda’s brilliant 2018 masterpiece Shoplifters as a primary reference, and you can absolutely see that inspiration in the intimate, observational way the film is made, capturing the messy, beautiful reality of a makeshift family unit. However, for me personally, the gritty, neorealist texture and the desperate, loving struggle of a father trying to navigate a harsh world with his kids felt far more reminiscent of Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 classic Bicycle Thieves. It’s a brilliant blend of modern indie sensibilities and timeless, soulful cinema.
The narrative builds steadily toward a climax that deals with the ultimate separation between the father and the boys. Without giving away any spoilers, it’s a beautifully handled, deeply emotional sequence that perfectly encapsulates the film's core theme of sacrifice. You feel the immense weight of every decision the father makes, and the quiet devastation of their circumstances is rendered with such authenticity that it genuinely strikes a chord. It’s a masterful piece of storytelling that trusts its audience to feel the unspoken bonds and heartbreaks between the characters without needing to spell everything out.
Ultimately, My Father’s Shadow is a quietly devastating, deeply human piece of cinema that will absolutely stay with me long after the credits rolled. Akinola Davies Jr. has crafted a deeply personal, visually stunning, and emotionally resonant film that honours his own history while speaking to universal truths about family, fatherhood, and growing up. It might not be a loud, explosive blockbuster, but it has a massive, beating heart.
It’s a brilliant, lingering portrait of the sacrifices we make for the ones we love, proving that sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones told in the quietest whispers.
My Father's Shadow sits in a tradition of personal, small-scale cinema that tends to outlast its more bombastic contemporaries precisely because it is not trying to be anything other than honest. Davies Jr.'s film is polished but unshowy, rooted in a real time and place while reaching for something that feels broadly recognisable about fathers, sons, and the distances that accumulate between them without anyone quite intending it. The backing from BBC Film and the BFI suggests a continued appetite from British institutions for co-productions that expand what British cinema can look like and where it can be set, which is no bad thing. At 93 minutes it does not overstay its welcome. It is the kind of film that settles in somewhere quietly, and stays.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-07-06
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for My Father's Shadow (2025) on YouTube
Where to watch
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