When Shula (Susan Chardy) returns home to Zambia and finds her uncle’s dead body on the roadside by a brothel, the last thing she wants is to mourn him. Her boisterously drunk cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) can’t stop laughing, because Uncle Fred died as he lived: a pervert. But when their aunties shame them into helping with three intense days of traditional funeral rites, the cousins must wrestle with the sanctification of a man who caused great harm in his lifetime.
Writer-director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch) was awarded a Best Director prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for her powerful sophomore feature. Darkly humorous and occasionally surrealist, her writing is matched by razor-sharp editing and immersive sound design to expose the absurdity of the family’s over-the-top demands. The pressure cooker of the funeral is contrasted with the joys and catharsis of stolen moments between the cousins. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a defiant warning call to families who hide predators in their midst.
Best Director: Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2024
The off-kilter, absurdist vibe of the picture is enchanting, but it’s rooted in deep horror: The whole movie is about the ways that cruelty and injustice become codified.
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
Media Partner
Community Partner
Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela
Zambia/UK/Ireland
2024
In Bemba and English with English subtitles
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Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Eva Yates, Christian Vesper, Olivia Sleiter
Producer
Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Tim Cole
Screenwriter
Rungano Nyoni
Cinematography
David Gallego
Editor
Nathan Nugent
Production Design
Malin Lindholm
Original Music
Lucrecia Dalt
Rungano Nyoni
Rungano Nyoni is a self-taught writer and director. She was born in Lusaka, Zambia, and grew up in Wales, UK. Rungano’s debut feature I Am Not a Witch (2017) follows an eight-year-old girl who is exiled to a witch camp. The film premiered at Cannes and was nominated for numerous international awards.
Filmography: I Am Not a Witch (2017)
Photo by Gabriel Gauchet
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