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A black woman, wearing black lipstick, sunglasses, and a sequin helmet/mask sits with her hands on the wheel of a car.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

  Rungano Nyoni

  Zambia, United Kingdom, Ireland     95 minutes

Synopsis

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across her uncle’s dead body. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.

Blending dark comedy with poetic realism, Nyoni critiques the traditional expectation to bury pain with the dead as a family of women refuses to feign grief. Featuring a striking visual style and haunting sound design, the film culminates in a defiant protest against silence and denial, suggesting that memory and truth will always endure.

 Bemba, English with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Tim Cole
  •   Rungano Nyoni
  •   Nathan Nugent
  •   David Gallego ADFC
  •   Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri
  •   Lucrecia Dalt
  •   Element Pictures, BBC Film, Fremantle, A24

Sponsors

Black Perspectives Program Sponsor

Logo: AllState

International Competition Program Patron

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation