On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a complex movie whose meanings and effects are achieved indirectly, and the film shows that some of the ritualistic spectacle may not just be about denial, but also about working through emotions. That’s refreshing, when so much cinema just wants to give you everything on a plate and erase any ambiguity.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl examines the ways in which denial is implemented as a survival mechanism—to live a lie is frequently easier than acknowledging an uncomfortable truth. Shula embodies the complexities of addressing one’s own trauma, and the dark secrets that both bind and unravel families are finely drawn by Nyoni.
