Explaining why British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davis Jr. was selected as the international guest of honor at this year’s Projeto Paradiso National Talent Network in Recife, the initiative’s executive director, Josephine Bourgois, said Davis Jr.’s The Shadow of the Father is a film that “could have been made by a Brazilian filmmaker.” This sentiment was confirmed when the director visited the northeastern capital and screened his BAFTA-winning film at the impressive Cinema San Luis.
“I’ve never seen my skin color photographed so well,” director Stefano Volpe said after a crowded screening on Saturday night. “In the Shadow of the Father brought Brazil a poetic and honest experience of masculinity, especially black masculinity,” agreed filmmaker Fernanda Lomba. “Akinola bravely and generously weaves a wonderful patchwork of memory, personal life, and Nigerian history. We have much to learn from this filmmaker’s gentle radicalism.”
In a conversation with acclaimed Brazilian screenwriter Jacqueline Souza earlier this week, Davis Jr. talked about how he realized over the last few years that there is “a huge bridge between Brazil and Nigeria that probably a lot of Nigerians don’t realize.” “We share a lot of things: spirituality, the way we look at the world, food, politics.”
“Father’s Shadow”
Credit: Cannes Film Festival
Speaking with Variety at the event, the director recalled that he first visited Brazil a few years ago and went to Rio de Janeiro to see sights such as Christ the Redeemer and Copacabana Beach. “But everyone I met kept saying I needed to go to Salvador. When I finally visited Salvador, it was like a psychedelic experience. It was one of the most memorable feelings I’ve ever felt. It It was like a fever dream and everything felt so vivid. I was there for maybe four or five days. When people describe ‘The Father’s Shadow’ as a fever dream, this is how I felt about Salvador.”
With My Father’s Shadow set to be released in Brazil at the end of the month, Davis Jr. has prepared a special treat for the city he feels so connected to. It will be a screening with live music by the film’s musicians Duval Timothy and CJ Mira. The drama is distributed by Filmes da Mostra, the distribution arm of Teatro Grande São Paulo, so Davis Jr. will also hold events in the city where it premiered in Brazil in October.
“When we signed the deal to bring this film to Brazil, I remember telling the Brazilian distributor that it would be incredible to have a proper premiere in Salvador,” the director added. “We wanted to do something with the film in this city. We wanted to give the Salvadoran audience something that felt really special.” Regarding the São Paulo screening, the filmmakers said it was “a token of our gratitude for having our film screened in such a wonderful and prestigious film festival.”
The director’s stay in Brazil is being documented by two documentarians who are making a special short film about how “In the Shadow of the Father” resonates in Brazil. Director Lucas Cristal and cinematographer Enrique Alves first approached the British-Nigerian filmmaker in Mostra, São Paulo, and have been following this visit closely.
“When we realized that Akinola’s journey through Brazil would mimic the Brazilian’s own journey, starting in the northeast all the way down to the south, we decided to make a documentary,” Crystal says. “We felt there was poetry in this geographical mirror image and wanted to tell the audience about this bridge that connects Brazil and Nigeria, but we didn’t even know it existed until we met Akinola in Mostra.”
The filmmaking duo say their film will be even more meaningful given Brazil’s presidential elections at the end of the year. “Akinola’s films are highly political and able to speak to audiences at this critical moment in political history. We are about to make choices that will define the lives of generations of Brazilians,” Cristal emphasized, adding that while films like “The Secret Agent” and “I’m Still Here” have broadened the public’s interest in political stories, there is still a lack of black-focused, black-led political stories. “As a black filmmaker, Akinola’s work spoke directly to me in a way that no previous Brazilian film had.”
LONDON, UK: Akinola Davis Jr. receives the Outstanding Debut Award by British Writer/Director/Producer for “My Father’s Shadow” on stage at the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 held at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England on February 22, 2026. (Photo by Stuart Wilson/British Academy/Getty Images for BAFTA)
Getty Images for BAFTA
With such a special connection to the Latin American country, would Davis Jr. ever embark on a co-production with Brazil? “Of course, I’d love to,” he said quickly. “It would be incredible if we could find the right relationship. I’ve met some amazing Brazilian producers and filmmakers and they’re all really generous and smart people. When the time comes and the perfect opportunity presents itself, I’m 100 percent sure I want to work with Brazil. There are bridges to be built. There’s a big Brazilian community in Lagos, so I hope we can find a story that’s suitable for co-production. I’m totally open to that.”
And when it comes to Brazil’s opponents, that feeling is also the same. Lomba, a filmmaker who is working directly to strengthen the presence of black creators in Brazilian cinema through Nicho 54, says Davis Jr.’s visit to Brazil is “part of a kind of black zeitgeist, a moment when creative and business connections between Brazilian and African filmmakers are heating up thanks to a shared cultural imagination. I believe we are witnessing the beginning of a long-awaited collaboration.”
For Davis Jr., being able to connect with the diaspora is “even more important” than he realized while making the film. “The response to this film has been overwhelming. When you create authentic work, people in the diaspora can resonate with the film no matter where they are. I think we need to see more of each other’s films. I think there needs to be more collaboration between filmmakers and sharing of resources, concepts and ideas.”
“In most parts of the world, especially in the English-speaking world, we look to the UK and the US and all of a sudden that seems to be dominating the conversation, but there’s a huge Francophone community that’s underserved, and there’s also a Caribbean community, a Latin American community…We just need to find more ways to connect.”
