From that title, watching this movie, I didn't know what to expect because a lot of kids grew up knowing their father through everyday moments. Others have to create little time to get with them. But this movie told a story that feels a bit close to home especially for those who understands the gravity of what having parents who are emotionally or physically distant feels like. Though it is a new movie but it follows the 90s set of two young brothers Remi and Akin who got an opportunity that was so rare to spend a day with Folarin, their father in Lagos.
For the boys, the whole journey was sort of an adventure for them. They got to experience the live lived in another city that is more bigger and busier and more complicated than where they came from. They grew up seeing their father moving from one city to another and trying to figure out why he visits them occasionally and they see him as a distant man. But as young boys, what made the whole thing interesting is that these two had no knowledge of what being an adult means. Though they admire the man, yet struggle to understand him sometimes.
Folarin, their father in this movie was given a sense of complexity because he was not presented as a man who had everything figured out or was perfect or knows how to fix everything. He also moves with his personal problems and there are moments when what he does leaves Akin and Remi questionable on where they stand with him. And this always makes their relationship more believable because sometimes, parents can admire, care and love their kids and still do things that makes those children ask questions.
The film has this Nigeria 90s settings which was also brought into action because that time the country was still passing through some face of uncertainty which affected everyone at large.
Watching this movie, I specifically appreciate how those scenes were not rushed, they gave them time to breathe. And how the two young guys performed also gave the movie a lot of tenderness, while the cinematographer did a brilliant work but capturing Lagos life as it were in the 90s. I still always wonder how they manage to do those things sometimes. Though there were lot of slower pace in this movie which some might not like, but for this story, I feel it is what was needed.
Overall, this movie left me made me realise how little of a time we sometimes get with someone people who we are still trying to understand. Akin and Remi spent a day with their father, Folarin but that did not erase the days he had been physically absent in their lives and that is one of the things that made this movie worth it for me. Some family relationship can be complicated. Which made My Father's Shadow a thoughtful and emotional drama between Folarin and his two boys.
IMGs are IMDb
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Rating: 80/100
