History echoed through Cannes as “My Father’s Shadow”—the first-ever Nigerian feature in the festival’s official selection—debuted in the Un Certain Regard section, turning the spotlight on Nigeria’s cinematic heartbeat and the deeply personal journey of its creators, Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother Wale.
Born from a decade of longing and imagination, the film answers a question that haunted the Davies brothers since they lost their father as toddlers: What if they could spend just one more day with him? Wale’s script, first sent to Akinola in 2012, became the springboard for a story so raw it brought Akinola to tears on first read. The result is a father-son odyssey set in Lagos, 1993, on a day of seismic national upheaval—when hopes for democracy were dashed, and the future hung in the balance.
On screen, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù brings the father, Folarin, to life with an emotional gravitas that anchors the film’s heart. Two young boys—played by Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo—are swept along for a revelatory day in the city, their imaginations, memories, and dreams interwoven with the city’s electric chaos and unfiltered beauty. Every frame is a love letter to Lagos: “Point a camera at anything in Lagos, and it’s so cinematic,” Akinola muses.
The project, a fusion of memory, dream, and family lore, is not just a deeply cathartic tribute to their father, but a love song to Nigeria and its thriving film industry. “It means a lot to people back in Nigeria. It means we can exist on these platforms and our stories can exist in these spaces,” Akinola told reporters, celebrating the country’s first-ever Cannes pavilion and Nollywood’s undeniable influence. “You can’t borrow people from that whole industry and say it’s not part of it.”
“My Father’s Shadow” arrives with North American distribution already secured by Mubi and confirms Akinola Davies—fresh off a BAFTA nomination for his short “Lizard”—as a bold new voice in African cinema. For him, this is more than filmmaking; it’s healing, legacy, and a fresh chapter for Nigeria’s global storytelling.
From Lagos to Cannes, from personal grief to public triumph, “My Father’s Shadow” is proof that the stories we yearn to tell can change the world, one memory at a time.
