Rating: NR | Runtime: 94 minutes
Release Date: September 19th, 2025 (Nigeria) / February 13th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: FilmOne Distributio / MUBI
Director(s): Akinola Davies
Writer(s): Akinola Davies & Wale Davies

You just have to pray you don’t sacrifice the wrong thing.

While we assume what’s happening right from the start courtesy of the film’s obvious thematic motifs, it’s still easy to get so enamored by this rare day with Dad in the big city that we trick ourselves into forgetting the inevitable truth just like his two young sons do.

My Father’s Shadow proves a perfect mix of historical detail (to infer upon the moment’s political unrest and hopeful optimism) and familial sacrifice (to understand what it means to live hard so the next generation might still live better). Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù is fantastic as always and the Egbo brothers’ newcomers as his idealistic and surly boys (Chibuike Marvelous and Godwin Chiemerie, respectively) more than hold their own.

Give director Akinola Davies Jr. and his own co-writing sibling Wale a ton of credit too because they expertly orchestrate the rug pull in a way that ensures everything we’ve seen remains real despite reality. Just as the boys’ father spoke of his late brother, they know he also strove to live life as a good man. Now it’s their turn to do the same thanks to the lessons imbued by the imperfect shadow rendering this Lagos adventure possible. Then he can find peace too.

My Father’s Shadow had an Oscars-qualifying run on November 21st, 2025.

---

Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, Sope Dirisu, and Godwin Egbo in MY FATHER’S SHADOW; courtesy of MUBI.