ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

Wednesday, May 6, 6:00 p.m. & Sunday, May 10, 12:00 p.m. | Shula discovers her uncle Frederick's body on a deserted road one night in Zambia, triggering a family gathering that exposes buried secrets and collective denial. As funeral preparations proceed, Shula and her cousin Nsansa confront the family's willful silence about Frederick's history of sexual abuse. Nyoni employs surrealist touches—guinea fowl imagery, dreamlike sequences, matching pink dresses—to explore how patriarchal families protect predators through enforced amnesia. The film dissects respectability politics and gendered expectations around grief, as women are required to perform mourning for an abuser. Through dark humor and visual metaphors of transformation, Nyoni examines how trauma passes between generations when families choose comfortable lies over difficult truths about violence within their own walls.

Awards & Nominations

Winner - Best Director, Un Certain Regard
Winner - Silver Hugo - Best Ensemble Cast Performance, Special Mention for the Female Ensemble, Chicago International Film Festival 

African Cinema: From Independence to Now Lecture Series | January 28–May 17, 2026

This film series explores 65 years of African cinema, from anti-colonial resistance to digital reinvention. Through 14 films from across the continent, African filmmakers reimagine the medium as a tool for decolonization, self-representation, and artistic innovation, connecting the political with the poetic. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory, and Criticism department. Lecturer: Delinda Collier, Professor of Art History. Synopses by Delinda Collier. Select titles offered with encores; encores do not include lecture.

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu