From its bracing first shot through the surprising, aesthetically daring, politically potent story that follows, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl was one of the best movies of last year and a highlight of the 2024 Chicago International Film Festival. After two features, Zambian-born writer-director Rungano Nyoni has joined a thrilling movement of filmmakers from Lesotho, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, and elsewhere who are taking sub-Saharan cinema in bold new directions and drawing the kind of worldwide attention too long withheld from African film artists.
Recommended viewing: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (theatrical run at the Gene Siskel Film Center starting March 14) and I Am Not a Witch (UK/Zambia, 2017), This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lesotho, 2019), and/or Neptune Frost (US/Rwanda, 2021), all streaming on multiple platforms.
Please note: The discussion does not include screenings of films.