MY FATHER’S SHADOW

Synopsis

A semi-autobiographical tale set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian metropolis Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis. The story follows a father, estranged from his two young sons, as they travel through the massive city while political unrest threatens their journey home.

Statement of the director

The two brothers Akinola and Wale Davies have been, according to Akinola, ‘creating with each other all of our lives in some capacity – I mean, we grew up together’.
When Akinola first read Wale’s writing, it brought out quite an emotional reaction in him: ‘It’s so layered and is the first script by someone I knew that I had read. It made me weep. I had never conceived of a story about our lives but fictionalised in this way.’
Following the success of their short film, LIZARD, Akinola was keen to develop MY FATHER’S SHADOW as his feature-length directorial debut: ‘We knew that if we made a good short film, then we’d have the possibility of making a feature film. I always go into things with the attitude of “What if this the last thing that I ever do”, so if I could make one feature film, what would I want it to be? I knew that it should be something personal, so I asked Wale if he would do me the honour of allowing me to take on MY FATHER’S SHADOW’.
Akinola reflects on the writing process with Wale as ‘some of his favourite days’, noting that they were both muddling through the process together: ‘Even though we’re both involved in that world, the idea of making a film seemed somewhat far-fetched. What I would do is force us to go on “mini holidays” with each other, so we could concentrate fully on writing. We actually wrote the first draft of MY FATHER’S SHADOW in a very short amount of time, because of this. Neither of us are technically trained as writers, but we’d just throw out ideas and debate each one. We’d look at pictures, or watch films and listen to songs, and then that would inspire us’.