On Becoming a Guinea Fowl PictureEast 2025
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.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Rungano Nyoni
One can be forgiven for taking Rungano Nyoni’s dramady as simply a tale of a family covering the crimes of the protagonists’ (Susan Chardy) uncle. However there is so much more in the tale than this. Written during a period of grief, Nyoni harnesses her own pain and love for Zambian culture in 95 minutes of pure gold.
This is an account of how death affects life and every stage in-between; on the beautiful yet emotionally taxing traditions honed by our ancestors, and on the rallying cry of the younger generation to be loved and acknowledged. Sometimes we escape into our minds, and attempt to rewrite our trauma to become our own hero, and, just as the proverb after which this film is named, Nyoni shows us that if we embolden the often overlooked little guinea fowls inside of us, we can do just that.
Release Date: December 6th 2024
Directed by Rungano Nyoni
Written by Rungano Nyoni
Produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Tim Cole
Cast Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri
Cinematographer David Gallego
Composer Lucrecia Dalt Distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment
Runtime: 95 minutes