On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Death and secrets permeate writer-director Rungano Nyoni’s dazzling second feature, which earned her the Best Director award in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival. Driving through the night after a party (and dressed as Missy Elliot, no less), Shula happens across the corpse of her uncle Fred. That he’s dead isn’t shocking—that she doesn’t care at all is. A portrait of Zambia’s matriarchal society and the lingering emotional scars left behind by sexual abuse, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl combines dark comedy and bruising drama—absurdism and stripped-down realism—to investigate lies that have smothered Shula’s family for years. The filmmaker of 2017’s equally stellar I Am Not a Witch continues to demonstrate an ability to craft modern parables that grapple with both history and a younger generation’s desire to break free from the sins of the past. “A dreamlike tale of grief and trauma . . . strange and restlessly ambitious” (Financial Times).