Review: 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl' is a moving drama from Zambia that shows generational trauma is universal
Like any movie from another country, writer-director Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” stops to ask us what we have in common with people in, in this case, Zambia — like how patriarchy and generational sexism are universal.
Shula (Susan Chardy) is driving home one night from a party — where, one assumes, her Missy Elliott costume was a hit — when she sees a body lying in the road. When she stops, she sees that the body is that of her Uncle Fred. For a moment, she catches a glimpse of herself as a little girl, and the audience immediately senses there’s some history here.
Shula tries to call her mother for help. While she’s waiting, her cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela), walks up, apparently feeling the effects of too much alcohol wherever she was this evening.
By morning, everyone in town knows that Fred has died, and people start piecing together why he was in that particular part of town so late at night. For Shula and some of her female cousins, there’s a pattern here — involving Fred’s predilection for young women, including ones within his family.
But as Shula’s house and backyard start filling with relatives for Fred’s funeral, there’s little time to think about Fred’s past sins. Shula and the other young women are put to work, cooking food for all of the mourners, and for keeping the peace among the female cousins of her mother’s generation, who seem to be in an undeclared contest to appear to be the most grief-stricken. Meanwhile, the men of the family sit around and expect Shula and her cousins to keep serving them plates of food, like they’re waitresses in an outdoor cafe.
Nyoni never declares it outright, but it’s clear Shula is the oldest of the female cousins of her generation. She’s the one expected to be in charge, of carrying the weight of keeping the funeral attendees fed as well as the emotional weight of holding the family secrets. Chardy’s compelling performance shows Shula holding the family and herself together, though it’s clear that if she should snap, the explosion would be heard for miles.
Nyoni steeps “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” in bits of Zambian culture that become an anthropological lesson for outsiders. Just below the surface, though, is a deeper, universal truth about generational trauma and the courage it takes to challenge it.
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‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, March 21, in theaters. Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving sexual abuse, some drug use and suggestive references. Running time: 99 minutes; in English and Bemba, with subtitles.