Rungano Nyoni is special. The Zambian-Welsh filmmaker has finally gotten chances to make feature films, now a rousing 2 for 2. After not becoming a witch, this is her treatise On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, a miracle of a film that only Nyoni’s singular voice could have conjured. OK, maybe she is a bit of a witch.
Driving home from a party, Shula (Susan Chardy) stops her car in the middle of the road seeing a dead body. Instead of panic calling the police, she muses for a bit, eventually deciding to call her family to let them know her Uncle Fred has passed away. This phone call triggers a cascading series of events, leading the audience through the customs of a Zambian funeral, one of the more fascinating cultural events I’ve seen on film.
Only an incredible filmmaker like Rungano Nyoni can pull of On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. It requires a mastery of tone and storytelling to weave through all the complex emotions Shula and the family go through over the course of the film. The beginning is truly disorienting, as we get immersed in Zambian life through a series of late night interactions and phone calls around dead body. It’s the perfect mixture of darkly amusing but tempting, as we’re drawn in by the strange choices each character starts making. From that jumping point Nyoni dives us deep into Shula’s life, burrowing deeper and deeper into a person who we have to learn about through observation cause she rarely speaks. This quiet quickly turns to disquiet, as so much of Shula’s life wants to be said but cannot to keep the peace. Along the way, Nyoni is slowly transforming the movie’s tenor to something more somber and alarming, without ever acknowledging this is happening.
And that’s because we’re too focused on the Zambian funeral process. And by proxy, a stand in for institutional crime. On paper, I can appreciate the good intentions of it: families gather together, hours and days of mourning, in hopes to bring everyone closer together at the shared loss of a loved one. But the movie asks the question: what if this loved one wasn’t really loved? You get On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, where this well meaning enterprise warps into a toxic burial of necessary conversations for the sake of almost play acting out a “real” funeral. And if you don’t get onboard: YOU’RE the bad one, choosing your feelings over “making the family look bad.” Shula, like the audience, takes all of this in and gets more and more frustrated, wanting desperately to say what no one else wants to. It’s an incredible breakout performance from Susan Chardy, who approaches Cillian Murphy levels of interior turmoil as the Guinea Fowl transformation takes ahold of her.
Most importantly though, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is wonderfully entertaining. I got that perfect mixture of transporting to a world I’ve never seen before, with a story that’s immersive and interesting. I’d love to see some Welsh customs Rungano Nyoni as well, or at least a wonderful mixture of Zambian Welsh lifestyle I didn’t know existed, but can’t wait to experience more of, thank to your amazing movies!