"Written by Davies's older brother, Wale, the film follows two young brothers during Nigeria's 1993 Presidential election, which offered hope for democracy after a decade of military dictatorship. In the movie's first dramatic scene, achingly redolent of memory, the brothers-the older is eleven, the younger eight-loll in front of their family's house, snacking, grousing, playing with paper action figures, trying to fill the solitude and the silence around them with banter and bravado."
"The brothers' lives, and the movie itself, soon snap into action, with the arrival of their father, Folarin (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù). He's been away for an unspecified while, and, instead of coming home to stay, he's there to take the boys with him, on a bus to Lagos, where he works in a factory. (Their mother is out on a somewhat mysterious errand, and they leave before she gets back.)"
The film follows two young brothers in Nigeria during the hopeful 1993 Presidential election as they experience childhood play and sudden family upheaval. Their father, Folarin, returns briefly to take them by bus to Lagos, where he works in a factory, while their mother is away. The narrative privileges a child's-eye perspective, focusing on what the boys observe as much as what they do. Editing frequently cuts between moments of observation and action, blurring memory and present experience. The film frames personal family dynamics against the wider political moment, suggesting an autobiographical undercurrent when the younger boy's name is later revealed as Akinola.
Read at The New Yorker
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