Blessings Bhamjee, Bwalya Chipampata, Cannes Film Festival, Carol Natasha Mwale, Doris Naulapwa, drama, Elizabeth Chisela, Esther Singini, film festivals, Gillian Sakala, Henry B.J. Phiri, Loveness Nakwiza, movies, New York Film Festival, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, reviews, Roy Chisha, Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival
March 7, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Rungano Nyoni
Some language in Bemba with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2024, in an unnamed city in Zambia, the dramatic film “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” features a predominantly African cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: During a trip to visit her home country of Zambia, a young woman discovers her uncle dead on a road, and his death opens up emotional wounds about family secrets.
Culture Audience: “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in watching offbeat films about how adults deal with childhood sexual trauma.
The drama “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” requires patience and curiosity because the storytelling doesn’t get to the point right away. The movie has a patchwork style of narration: Not all of the pieces are perfectly matched, but together they present the big picture. It’s a story about generational trauma from sexual abuse, where the unspoken weighs heavier than what’s said out loud.
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The movie made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” takes place in an unnamed city in Zambia, where the movie was filmed on location. It’s shown at the end of the movie why it is titled “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.”
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” begins with a visually striking scene: A woman in her late 30s/early 40s named Shula (played by Susan Chardy) is driving on a remote road at night. She’s dressed in a black vinyl inflatable suit and is wearing a white beaded helmet and wraparound shades. Shula looks like she just stepped out of music video that draws equal parts inspiration from a late 1990s video such as Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and an early 1980s video such as Davd Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes.” It’s mentioned later in the movie that Shula is dressed this way because she came from a costume party.
Shula sees the body of an unconscious or dead man in the middle of the road. When she stops her car and gets out for a closer look, she sees that the man is her 52-year-old uncle Frederick “Fred” Chitampo (played by Roy Chisha), and Fred is definitely deceased. Shula suddenly has a vision of herself as a child when she was about 7 or 8 years old (played by Blessings Bhamjee), and this child version of Shula looks back at the adult Shula gets back into the car.
The first person whom Shula calls is her unnamed father (played by Henry B.J. Phiri), who is Fred’s older brother. Shula’s father tells her to do two things: (1) Lock herself in the vehicle and (2) Send him money for a taxi. Shula’s father doesn’t seem too upset that his brother is dead.
The night that Shula finds the body, she follows her father’s orders to stay locked in the car. During her vigil, Shula sees her cousin Nsansa (played by Elizabeth Chisela) walk down the road. Nsansa also notices the body and inspects it to make sure that Fred is really dead. Nsansa, who has a bottle of beer, is drunk. She appears giddy after she sees that Fred has died.
All three of these family members don’t show any grief over Fred’s death. It’s the first indication that something is “off” with this family. The cause of Fred’s death is never revealed in the movie. Since there was no police investigation, viewers can assume that the authorities decided that Fred died of natural causes.
Shula doesn’t look happy to see Nsansa there. In fact, when Nsansa asks Shula to open the car door to let Nsansa in the car, Shula refuses to open the door. Nsansa bangs on the car door and front passenger window for at least two minutes, demanding to be let inside. Eventually, Shula opens the door.
Nsansa calls the police to report the dead body. The cop on the phone tells her to wait for someone to pick up the corpse. That doesn’t happen until the next morning, when first responders arrive to take the body away. Shula and Nsansa spent the night together in the car.
The rest of “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” shows what happens before, during and after Fred’s funeral in the span of about four or five days. It’s never made clear where Shula currently lives, but it’s implied that it’s somewhere in the United Kingdom. There’s a brief scene of Shula in a hotel room, where she’s on a videoconference call with about 15 work colleagues. Shula is the only person of color on this videoconference call.
These are clues that wherever Shula lives now, it’s a very different culture than the one she’s come back to in Zambia. All of her closest family members live in Zambia, including her parents (her unnamed mother is played by Doris Naulapwa); Nsansa; Shula’s younger cousin Bupe (played by Esther Singini); and Shula’s aunts Ruth (played by Gillian Sakala), Catherine (played by Carol Natasha Mwale), Linda (played by Loveness Nakwiza) and Bukata (played by Bwalya Chipampata).
At the wake for Fred’s funeral, all of the women are wailing and crying—except for Shula, who sits silently with a detached expression on her face. Shula hears eulogies and chatter praising Fred as a great man. And when Shula goes to a copy shop to place an order for invitations to a memorial service for Fred, she has to read the words that describe Fred as a person who was saintly.
After a few private conversations between Shula and Nsansa, they don’t come right out and say what the big family secret is, but it becomes obvious, based on hints. Nsansa, who is always drunk or on the way to getting drunk, is addicted to alcohol to cope with whatever emotional pain she is feeling. Later, Bupe makes a confession that many people in the family don’t want to hear.
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” shows how society’s etiquette of not speaking badly about dead people can affect those left behind who were hurt by the dead person. If the dead person committed horrific crimes and was never held accountable for those crimes, justice can be elusive or unattainable, especially when so many people want the easy way out of denying that the crimes occurred. The choice to stay silent is especially true for some people if the perpetrator is a family member.
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is an atmospheric cinematic portrait of a family suppressing shame and guilt, no matter how much damage this suppression might cause. Chardy’s gripping performance as Shula is the heart and soul of this movie, which doesn’t present the story in a formulaic way. Shula’s homecoming turns into an awakening that confronts the pain of some very ugly and unsettling truths.
A24 released “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” in select U.S. cinemas on March 7, 2025.