Before he began his maiden voyage into Cannes (being selected for the Un Certain Regard section and winning a Special Mention for the Caméra d’Or – see video coverage), Akinola Davies Jr. showcased his roots with the 2020 short “Lizard” – the Grand Jury Prize winner in Sundance. His work blends personal mythology, cultural memory, and experimental visual language to explore identity in all its layered, the British-Nigerian filmmaker teamed with his brother Wale Davis to further explore lineage and inheritance with My Father’s Shadow.
This delves into small stories, traumas, and rituals passed down through generations shape a person’s sense of self. At times, there is a docu angle fused to a text that is all fiction but works with 1993 Nigerian election in the backdrop. A hybrid, sensorial approach, this is a feature debut that converses between past and present, inviting viewers to reflect on the shadows they carry and the light they choose to step into. At the 2025 Marrakech Film Festival I had the chance to speak to Akinola Davies Jr. – we touched upon the visual strategy of what we see in the background and foreground, how his award-winning actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù worked with the child actors in-between takes, and what his future essays might look like. Mubi releases My Father’s Shadow in February of 2026.
