Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rungano Nyoni
Starring: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri, Roy Chisha, Blessings Bhamjee
As a children's show within writer/director Rungano Nyoni's
second feature informs us, the guinea fowl is a bird known for its
ability to ward off predators by gathering in groups and using its
squawk to alert other birds to approaching threats. The film's
protagonist, Shula (Susan Chardy), a middle class Zambian woman,
can't get the childhood memory of that show out of her head. When we
meet her first she's driving home from a costume party, decked out in a
homemade guinea fowl costume. As Nyoni's film unspools, Shula's reasons
for admiring the selflessness of the guinea fowl will become painfully
clear. By a strange coincidence it's the second movie to arrive in
recent weeks, following Andrea Arnold's Bird, in which a bird is employed as a metaphor for a protector against
abuse.
While driving home from the aforementioned party, Shula finds the body
of a middle-aged man lying on the side of the road. On close inspection
she realises it's her uncle Fred. The ensuing scenes, which see a
frustrated and dispassionate Shula frown as she struggles with her
chaotic family members and the unreliable local police, suggest we're in
for a Trouble with Harry-esque black comedy. But the laughs soon dry up as the truth about
Fred's past slowly emerges.
As we meet Shula's extended family we realise they have mythologised
Fred as a loveable scoundrel, a ladies man. His corpse was laid out
suspiciously close to a brothel, suggesting he probably suffered a heart
attack in a moment of exuberance. But while the older women weep, the
younger women of the family slowly gather in support as they take the
opportunity of Fred's passing to reveal his legacy of abuse.
Some of the women-directed films to emerge in the wake of the MeToo
movement have hinted at the culpability of women in protecting predatory
men (The Assistant; Blink Twice), but none more so than On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. The older women of Fred's family are happy to throw his victims under
the bus in order to protect their family name. Fred's teenage wife, who
bore his first child when she was merely 11, is cruelly dismissed as a
gold digger and even blamed for his death, accused of not keeping him
sufficiently well fed. This idea of a woman's place being in the kitchen
echoes through the film, with Shula constantly being ordered to make
breakfast or cook chicken for the mourners. The film's best scene sees
an anxious Shula try to corral her uncle's various young victims while
fending off countless requests to provide food for the male mourners.
After confronting her father with Fred's legacy, Shula is encouraged to
leave it in the past, the conversation ending with her insensitively
being asked to fetch more ice cubes.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl marks the acting debut of Zambian-British model Chardy, who comes
out of the gate with one of the year's most engaging performances. Nyoni
denies her leading lady any Oscar speech moments, instead forcing her to
tell Shula's story largely through reactive gestures. Chardy is
brilliant at portraying the unspoken frustration of being surrounded by
those who have yet to catch up with your progressive ideals; Shula
spends much of the film being told how she should behave, and we see the
exasperation behind her eyes. The code-switching of Shula's accent
serves to communicate much about her relationship with whomever she
happens to be conversing with at any given time. In her most frustrated
moments she speaks with a clipped British accent, as though her
frustration is directed not just at her family but at Zambia itself.
It's a subtle implication that she has spent time abroad and desperately
wants her homeland to make the progress she's experienced elsewhere. As
with Nyoni's debut, I Am Not a Witch, and the likes of Sarmad Masud and the McDonagh brothers' unflattering
portraits of their ancestral homes of Pakistan and Ireland, it once
again raises the thorny issue of whether a country's ills should be
critiqued by a British-based member of its diaspora rather than a
resident native, but as Nyoni makes all too clear here, this is a
particular ill Zambia isn't yet willing to confront.
The lack of explicit confrontation in Nyoni's film may prove
frustrating to viewers, but that's the point. Shula is trapped in a
society unwilling to have a conversation about gender politics. The most
women of an older generation can offer her is sympathy; justice simply
isn't on the table. But in the sorority that develops between Shula and
her uncle's young victims we're given a picture of hope, a suggestion
that the young women of Zambia may be set to adopt the ways of the
guinea fowl and rally together to defend themselves against
predators.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is
in UK/ROI cinemas from December 6th.
