BAFTA-winning Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch) returns with her sophomore feature, a surreal dramedy titled On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. The film follows a young Zambian woman who stumbles upon her uncle’s body, uncovering family secrets and lies as funeral preparations unfold.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director award. The film was also selected to screen at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival, the 62nd New York Film Festival, the 68th BFI London Film Festival, and the 20th Zurich Film Festival where it won the top Golden Eye award in the Feature Film Competition.
The film stars Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, and Henry B.J. Phiri.
Release Date
Directed by Rungano Nyoni, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl opens in select US theaters on March 7, 2025.
Synopsis
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. 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.
“It’s difficult to show things from a culture that other people don’t know,” says director Rungano Nyoni about the film in an interview with Cineuropa. “You can overexplain it, and I always avoid making something “anthropological”. But then you can become too opaque! I had to think about it during the edit. I wanted to show my culture but without making it feel like National Geographic.”
Reviews
Robert Daniels in a RogerEbert.com review praised the film, writing, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is a magically transcendent, cunningly funny, and arresting piece of cultural commentary that puts the inequalities of tradition against the warmth community can, still, on occasions, provide.”
Matthew Turner in a Next Best Picture review gave the film a score of 7/10, writing, “The themes of the destructive power of abuse and the tragedy of silence are powerfully explored, rendered all the more hard-hitting by the way in which the film refuses to offer anything approaching cathartic release.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.