Aside from its focus on the persistent pull of depression and suicidal thoughts, the film also shows how younger people battling depression and other mental health challenges seek support through social media like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Facebook to help themselves heal. While occasionally helpful, these groups often devolve into corrosive and illogical spots for peer pressure, where suicidal tendencies are encouraged and reinforced.
Despite all these, My Father’s Shadow is not a dirge. Its fragmented form allows for moments of tenderness and beauty, even humour. These flashes underscore the resilience of ordinary Nigerians, who, despite betrayals by their leaders, continue to love, to sing, to imagine futures for their children.
For a movie that runs for two hours, its pacing is incredibly rushed, with timelines not clearly delineated. Jaiye proposes to Adaora within two months of dating her, and they get married with very little on-screen chemistry allowed to truly develop. What is even more implausible is how such a successful business woman is forced into such a naïve and juvenile arrangement, where she cannot spot the glaring ulterior motive, external pressures be damned.
Kemi Adetiba’s ‘To Kill a Monkey” has every ingredient that makes for an engaging crime thriller; tension, intrigue, impressive visuals, layered characters, high stakes, tight pacing, heightened soundtracks and narrative density.
They are ‘traps’ which the viewers should not be able to easily detect, and they must truly inspire misdirection and doubt. Without this apparent sense of jeopardy, a murder mystery loses its capacity to elicit and maintain tension.
Technically, the film excels in its simplicity. The sound design is clean and immersive, especially during radio scenes, which are used effectively to externalize Uche’s inner thoughts. The editing is tight, avoiding unnecessary melodrama while still preserving dramatic tension. The film’s score is understated but emotional, punctuating key scenes without overpowering them.
A strong thread running through the film is the idea of desperation, not just the kidnappers’, not just the families’, but a national kind of desperation that corrodes values and bends every character toward self-preservation.
My Father’s Shadow is not a film that tells you what to think about 1993 or about Nigeria’s long arc of disappointments. It’s a film that teaches you how to feel history: to smell it, taste it, hold it against your ribs. It’s a portrait of a father whose love is messy and incomplete, and a nation whose promises frequently arrive late or not at all.
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However, if I turn a blind eye to these inconsistencies, I would place Baby Farm as one of the most thrilling offerings from the Nigerian film industry. There is a seamlessness to the production that doesn't feel forced. Characters, through the actors, come to life in this














