My Father's Shadow: A Mesmeric Ode to Lost Childhood

"Some years ago, Akinola Davies Jr received a short story written by his brother Wale, who was then living in Nigeria and working as a screenwriter for TV. The result of a writing exercise, Wale Davies's story was titled My Father's Shadow. "He sent it to me, really unprompted," Davies Jr remembers. "I cried, as you can imagine, because our father passed when we were really young. I would have been 20 months and I think he would have been about three years old." That story would become Davies Jr's Bafta-nominated debut feature My Father's Shadow, a magical portrait of two young brothers enjoying a rare day out in Lagos with their beloved, enigmatic father, told from the boys' perspective."

"The initial story had some of the elements of the Cannes prize-winning film they would eventually make (Wale Davies served as executive producer as well as co-writer). These involved scenes of the brothers playing, and a vivid, fever-dream sequence set on the beach. "I tend to think in pictures, I'm not the best reader," Davies Jr says. "Maybe that's just a cop-out, but if I don't get pictures when I'm reading something, I probably don't persist with reading it. I think what I really enjoyed from my brother's writing was that I could see it straight away.""

Akinola Davies Jr adapted a short story his brother Wale wrote into a Bafta-nominated debut feature, My Father's Shadow. The film follows two young brothers who spend a rare day in Lagos with their usually absent father, Folarin, as he tries to collect unpaid wages. The narrative is told from the boys' perspective and blends realistic scenes of play with a vivid, fever-dream beach sequence. The production draws on influences such as Bicycle Thieves, Shoplifters and Mandabi. Wale Davies served as executive producer and co-writer on the project.

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