ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL – Review

This weekend sees the release of an acclaimed family drama that’s a compelling exploration of another country’s culture. This setting takes moviegoers into the customs of Zambia in South-Central Africa. Though far from our shores, this story explores the universal subject of family dynamics and dark, repressed secrets. Yet, somehow, there are moments of laughter and revelry prior to several heartbreaking revelations. The filmmaker does provide a strong subtext to the somewhat whimsical and provocative title, which seems more apt for a nature documentary. We’ll eventually learn that the story’s main focus has a real grasp ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL.

After a brief prologue involving a grainy video clip from what appears to be a low-budget educational children’s TV show, “Farm Club”, we meet that “main focus”, a twenty-something young woman named Shula (Susan Chardy). It’s late at night, and she’s driving slowly on a nearly deserted country road. Oh, and Shula’s just left a big dance party, which explains her unusual attire, a sparkly half-mask with sunglasses and a puffy, over-sized jump suit. She nearly comes to a stop as she sees a body lying in the road. Gliding past, Shula recognizes the figure as her Uncle Fred. She immediately calls the understaffed local police, who tell her that they can’t get there for many hours. Several more calls to family members are made. They plead with her to stay there until the authorities arrive. Then, Shula is surprised by a woman staggering out of the pitch-black night toward her car. It’s her sloshed cousin Nsansa (Elisabeth Chisela), who begs her for money and a ride. Instead, Shula decides to try and get some sleep. When she awakes, the police and EMTs are taking away her deceased uncle. Shula returns home to find several movers taking out the furniture, as this will be the location of the family’s mourning rituals. Soon after, Shula’s mother (Doris Naulapwa) arrives with a quartet of “aunties”, crawling on all fours as they wail and moan in a flood of tears. But there’s little time to relax as Shula and Nsansa are kept busy cooking and getting the house ready for an army of relations to divy up Uncle Fred’s legacy. Ah, but part of that legacy involves the multitude of carnal sins committed by Fred toward various relatives. Shula nd Nsansa confront this as they run errands to acquire food and charcoal (the power goes out for several hours every evening), and retrieve a teen relative from a boarding school, Bupe (Esther Singini). This trying time becomes more turbulent as Shula goes to Fred’s house and meets his widowed teenage bride and a quintet of new cousins.

As I mentioned earlier, this film takes several unexpected twists and turns, orchestrated with great style and skill by director/screenwriter Rungano Nyoni. We seem to be set up for a zany comedy romp in the opening sequence via Shula’s bizarre outfit, looking like a “dollar-store” MCU “wannabe” slowly driving next to somebody lying flat on the pavement. This is compounded by her phone conversation with her deadbeat dad (“Wire me money for a cab”) and her loopy drunk cousin Nsana. Another level of quirk is added by the relatives arriving at the house by crawling on all fours, with many vying for most overwraught and weepy. Nyoni gives the “aunties” lots of leeway to “camp up” the grief contest, but then the story detours into the dark past of the dead (we never really see Fred, though several out-of-focus photos are in the background). Much of the film’s power comes from the restrained, almost a classic “straight role” for the odd characters to “bounce off” the performance of Chardy as the very stoic, nearly numb Shula. we see that the “tales of Fred” are starting to “chip away’ at the emotional wall she has built to block out the pain. Much is also revealed in her jarring surreal dream images, one that expands on Bupe’s school, which is flooded with water despite its dry, dusty surroundings. It all builds to a powerful finale that not only explains the film’s title but exposes the true nature of the eccentric relations that are far from being endearingly harmless. Nyoni expertly conveys the passage of time, showing how the required mourning rituals become a kind of aimless limbo. It all comes to a “boiling point” with a “fade to black” that leaves us spent and shocked by the bleak commentary on tradition and humanity (or inhumanity). ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL is a compelling dive into the depths of the family structure.

3.5 out of 4

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL plays in select theatres beginning on Friday, March 7, 2025