astrid

My Father's Shadow

everything is sacrifice. you just have to pray you didn't sacrifice the wrong thing. what a movie! this moved me multiple times, from the story to the performances. definitely deserves to be in the ranks of aftersun.

Lex

My Father's Shadow

Nostalgia is such potent emotion that could transcends across people; makes my heart shattered as the film concludes in such height of the tension breaks out.

olga

My Father's Shadow

good

nathansnook

My Father's Shadow

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.” How funny. I was just talking about my father the other day, who passed away ten years ago. A whole decade. I was talking to a childhood friend about him because our dads were best friends. I call her my cousin because we’ve practically grown up with each other, in the US and Vietnam, in ways that feel bonded by blood. When talking about my father this time around, no tears were shed. And I guess that means I’ve grown up a bit. I’ll admit that his voice is one that I forget, and I’ll get the pitch right in random remembrances. In the shower, in dreams. A scolding, a little aphorism. Little unserious things. Here, in the brimming waves of political restlessness, character study of father-here-father-not-there is told through mere impressions of Lagos. And though poetic movements of camera swishes lead to direct dialogue, stilted as prayers or aphorisms, remain faint in the bold images that the film offers. Women cooking. Militia smirking. Ice pops and ants. The poor, the working. It’s a bustling portrait of the city itself, but what I find so interesting is that politics is hidden as some grand shadow in the background for the film to erupt in revolt, one that claws at democracy. Democracy is a dream. But one that suffers its existence into mere fantasy or figment of the imagination. With images of the personal, two sons following their father’s footsteps, from work to women to the little ways he lives, we remember that there is a life that our loved ones live that we know nothing about. We only get quick flashes, flashes we don’t think too much of, until it is all gone. And so my father’s voice flashes, but every time it does, I stop my breathing, pause, to take it in like looking up at the sun, to blind myself of the past, to dream his white and blank presence to remain present with me, within me, dreary query. “𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴.”

reynata

My Father's Shadow

This movie intrigued me, so i googled it and i found this: "The directors lost their father when they were babies, so the film acts as an "imagining" or a "conjuring" of experiences they never had with him." Deeply personal and sharp in portraying the political situation happened in Nigeria at that time.

s.

My Father's Shadow

"Everything is sacrifice. You just have to pray you don't sacrifice the wrong thing." This was so devastating and beautiful. The last 20 minutes seemed like a quiet moment before everything got crazy. This movie reminds me of the stories my parents told me of them growing up during the Liberian Civil War.