Nigeria Needs Good Fathers, Says Director Who Made Cannes History

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When he was two, Akinola Davies Jr. lost his father, making history by directing the first ever film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival.

The creator of “My Father’s Shadow,” which is up for Camera d’Or for best first movie, said, “I’ve always collected father figures growing up.

According to Akinola, his country has long sought out a father figure to encircle it with an arm.

The movie follows a father and his two sons on an adventure through Lagos just as the military “pulled the rug away from dreams of democracy” with yet another coup, quashing the election’s outcome in 1993. The Guardian praised the movie as “rich, heartfelt, and rewarding.”

Many Nigerians hoped Moshood Abiola, the country’s opposition leader, would save them from the military, according to Akinola.

Instead, the generals imprisoned him.

At the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 18, 2025, British actor Sope Dirisu, British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies, and Nigerian screenwriter Wale Davies pose during a photo call for the movie “My Father’s Shadow.” (Photo by Miguel Medina/AFP)

Dreams were “deferred.”

He claimed that there are “interesting parallels between the father figures acting as the country’s president and as a military dictator.”

According to Davies, who grew up between London and Lagos, there was a perception that a father figure had to be a strong, authoritarian disciplinarian.

After the coup, General Sani Abacha was undoubtedly the figure that Nigeria received.

However, Akinola and his film subtly suggest that Sope Dirisu’s personified “Daddy” could have been a different father of the country.

On May 18, 2025, British actor Sope Dirisu poses during a photo call for the movie “My Father’s Shadow” at Cannes, southern France’s 78th edition. (Photo by Miguel Medina/AFP)

The “Gangs of London” actor plays a father who tries to get his boys’ months of backpay in vain from the village of Lagos.

As soon as they discover that his eye has strayed from his wife in the big smoke, he may be a good man.

On May 18, 2025, the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, features British screenwriter Wale Davies, British director Funmbi Ogunbanwo, British co-producer Rachel Dargavel, British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies, British actor Sope Dirisu, and Nigerian screenwriter Wale Davies posing during a photo call for the movie “My Father’s Shadow.” (Photo by Miguel Medina/AFP)

The boys are able to hold their fathers accountable, according to Akinola, and they can do this because they can see how to do it themselves.

A father’s relationship with his children is a “two-way street, and not a dictatorship,” the young director claimed.

The relationship between brothers Godwin Chimerie Egbo and Chibiuke Marvellous Egbo, who he “idolised” as a child, and Akinola, who wrote the screenplay, and his older brother Wale, who are the boys’ actors, is mirrored in the movie.

In a case of life imitating art, Dirisu was forced to play “Daddy” on the set, gently laying the law a few times while Marvellous attempted to control his younger brother in another scene from the script.

Akinola laughed, “There are levels and levels.”

I’ve witnessed my brothers become fathers, and I’d have wished they had done the same with their children.

On May 20, 2025, the film “My Father’s shadow” will be screened at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, in the presence of US directors and screenwriters Charlie Polinger, Lucy Mckendrick, British directors and screenwriters Harry Lighton, Akinola Davies Jr., and British cinematographer Jermaine Canute Edwards. Sameer AL-DOUMY/AFP photo

He said he hoped one day Nigeria’s dreams would also come true in light of the film’s positive reviews and Akinola’s friendly encounter with Hollywood royalty on the red carpet.