'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl' Review: Zambian Customs are Challenged in Poetic Family Drama Concerning Silence and Complicity
At last year's Toronto International Film Festival, I started my marathon with Rungano Nyoni's On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. Despite my limited knowledge of Zambian culture, Nyoni's follow-up to I Am Not a Witch left me distressed. The film highlights the country’s unique customs when grieving a relative, yet directly condemns its outdated components as well. Despite the microscopic focus on a single middle-class family, it left me feeling existentially numb, contemplating all the similar cultures that exist in the world in which women are subservient and must uphold patriarchal power, even in death. That's part of the reason why it's one of the best family dramas I've ever seen and a must-see work of art.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of A24
MPA Rating: PG13 (thematic material involving sexual abuse, some drug use and suggestive references)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 39 Minutes
Production Companies: Element Pictures, A24, Fremantle, BBC Film
Distributor: A24
Director: Rungano Nyoni
Writer: Rungano Nyoni
Cast: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Driving home from a party, dressed in Missy Elliot's iconic fit from The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), Shula (Susan Chardy) finds her uncle Fred dead in the middle of the road. She informs her freeloader dad (Henry B.J. Phiri), but that goes nowhere. Together, she and her charismatic alcoholic cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) find a way to take care of the body. When the rest of the family is finally informed, a funeral in the Zambian Bemba tradition is held at Shula's mother's home. The halls are filled with soulful sounds of mourning as her countless aunts and uncles gather to celebrate and grieve, and the women whip up delicious meals and feed the men. Shula's personal space is infiltrated by her judgmental aunts, who constantly scold her for not being sufficiently traumatized and grief-stricken. But Shula and Nsansa feel little sympathy for Fred, who sexually abused them. As days go by and the family becomes increasingly irrational towards Fred's widowed wife, Shula and Nsana discover the enormity of his actions and the complicity of the women in their family.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Powerfully Critiques an Outdated Custom.
Under Shula’s gaze, Rungano Nyoni deconstructs every facet of this tradition of grieving a loved one. Yet after painting that portrait, she shatters the frame, unraveling the hypocrisies within the tradition. Nyoni thoughtfully and meticulously confronts how the complicitness and silence of the family contribute to the pain of survivors in a culture where one must never speak ill of the dead. Nyoni paints the older generation in particularly sharp detail, introducing a wolf pack of aunties with big boisterous personalities yet hollow emotions who do their damndest to deflect the pain their Fred caused. Every turn within its story reveals another enraging facet of Fred's disgusting life, yet you end up hating the aunts. The film then delves into how this neglect shaped the next generation that Fred abused: Shula remains silent and passive, Nsana turns to alcoholism and morbidity, and their youngest cousin Bupe (Esther Singini), a college student, clings to denial. It navigates its themes with a masterful balance of unflinching honesty and piercing humor that shatters to the core.
Nyoni crafts a palpable atmosphere, and the remarkable cast embodies the film's intense rage as it becomes eerily surreal. British-Zambian actress Susan Chardy is outstanding, illuminating Shula's deep-rooted trauma through her apathetic gaze. Her acting emanates pure middle-cousin energy—quietly observant among her relatives' contrasting personalities, but simmering with a slow-burning rage. I also adored Elizabeth Chisela — the charisma and liveliness she brought to Nsana creates a fun dynamic with Shula's passiveness, making for some strong comedy. Beyond them, the entire ensemble of the aunties are amazing, making every aspect of the film feel so true to life that at times, lost in my own visceral reaction of anguish, I forget I'm watching a movie. Which is crazy to say, because Nyoni makes Guinea Fowl as stylish as it is contemplative.
Devastating Dark Humor
Guinea Fowl may be tackling a difficult subject, but Nyoni rounds it out with sharp humor. The first dozen minutes are straight out of a screwball comedy, establishing from the get-go how emotionless Shula and later Nsana are about their deceased uncle and revealing their distinctive traits and dynamic. Nyoni wrings out your innermost morbid sense of humor throughout to balance out the harsh subject and showcase the humanity of her characters. Personally, rewatching this with a predominantly Black audience brought out the communal aspects of Auntie's useless behaviors in ways both comedic and devastating.
Some of the Shots Will Linger With Me For Years
Nyongi weaves Guinea Fowl like a dream, with symbolic cues to illustrate the intricate traumatic consequences of enduring abuse. The flashbacks to Shula's youth feel like a repressed memory emerging, interwoven with an educational program on the guinea fowl — a plea to embody the strength of her adult self. A later scene involving a phone call with her father, with whom she has a complicated relationship, left me breathless and remained in my mind for months.
Final Thoughts
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is a thoughtful, powerful, visually visceral firecracker of a family drama that points out the hypocrisy of a facet of Zambian culture. With a remarkable female-led ensemble and radical direction from Rungano Nyoni, this is the work of a visionary in the making, if she is not there already. Incredible and infuriating in all the right ways.
