With powerful themes and imagery, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl shows the jarring effects of silence on a suburban Zambian family. This powerful film, directed by Rungano Nyoni, navigates stillness amid patriarchy and a generation that draws the line.
In the middle of the night, Shula (Susan Chardy) drives down an empty road and comes across a body. When she stops to investigate, she recognizes the body of her Uncle Fred. Once funeral proceedings start to take shape, painful memories from the past begin to surface. Shula and her cousins piece together their excruciating experiences while simultaneously catering to the every need of the males present. The film explores a unique intersectionality between chauvinism, culture, and silence.
The film looks at the price of upholding cultural traditions and family sacrifice. Her Uncle Fred violated multiple women in their youth, causing unspeakable pain; keeping still until Shula pushes the issue after his death.
The amount of strength it took to cater to a group of men while processing the suffering of other women from one man is mind-boggling. The cost of silence was heavy, and each woman was affected differently. What isn’t explained, but could surely be pieced together, is that past traumas could’ve played a role in Shula’s relocation. She’s only returning to Zambia for a short period and even takes a conference call in her hotel room, opting to work remotely instead of using bereavement. In an attempt to be present without being present, she stays in town for the funeral but resides at a local hotel, avoiding the chaos at home. The aunts bumrush her at her hotel and force her to stay at the house with everyone else. What awaits her is a property with women sprawled on every corner of the floor in almost every room. When space wasn’t available, a group even slept on the floor of the dry pool in the backyard.
If it was in my power, I would stop anything bad from happening to you.”
Women are the central focus of the film. The only scenes involving men are those looking for money or food. As Shula reflects on past grievances, sharing her grudges with her parents results in two different yet similar responses. The commonality shared is one of apathy; what’s done is done, and there’s no changing the past. Her father leaned on this more than her mother, saying something along the lines of, “Should we dig up his (Uncle Fred) bones and ask the corpse?” Her mother walked a finer line, attempting to balance respect for tradition and care for her daughter. Where the parents differed was her mother acknowledging Shula’s pain without providing a solution, while her father completely dismissed Fred’s actions and suggested she move on.
A powerful scene in the film is when the aunts move into the pantry room where Shula and her cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela), who was with her when she found Fred’s body, found respite from the funeral. Nsansa is another victim of Uncle Fred’s. Her excessive drinking is more than likely due to her experience with him as a child. But for a second, the beers she and Shula shared in the pantry were put aside, and the two collapsed into their mother’s arms. The group wept loudly and then hummed in unison. “We are also hurt, my children,” said one aunt, almost as a vote of assurance that they also harbor grief and regret.
There’s a brief clip of a young Shula watching two girls on a TV show describing an animal called a Guinea Fowl. They’re nervous and easily startled birds, but also vocal and defensive. Those same attributes can be seen in Shula to a degree. Guinea Fowl travel in groups, which could be symbolized by the different groups of women throughout the film. The film explored Shula’s journey to find herself and her voice after going silent for years about her abuse. The creatures are loud, and at one point, she squawked while walking towards the camera.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl gets an 8.5 out of 10. It’s both darkly comedic and jarringly haunting. For a woman to experience sexual assault in some form amid a backdrop of taboo (speaking ill of the dead) sounds unimaginable. And yet, Shula, Nsansa, and other women were left on their own to pick up the pieces after being violated. A strong showing by the younger generation is empowering as they fight back against a stance of ambivalence and silence. At times, the film plods along when it should scurry, but aside from that, it’s an excellent show by Nyoni and Chardy.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is now in theaters.
-Jon Jones
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: March 7, 2025 (Limited Release)