On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
We meet Shula (Susan Chardy) driving home from a costume party when she stops to discover the dead body of her Uncle Fred in the middle of the road. She isn't exactly sad about it, nor is her cousin Nsansa (a delightfully unhinged Elizabeth Chisela), who comes across the body shortly after Shula. What happens next is a wild series of mayhem and emotion as Shula's large and traditional Zambian family grieves and plans the funeral, while Shula looks on silently with clear disdain throughout the entire affair. Shula's mother and numerous aunts are all concerned with doing things the "proper" way and don't understand why Shula (who is clearly a Westernized young woman) doesn't follow suit; they wail and shed tears, drop everything to make funeral preparations, and criticize Shula for not dressing correctly.
We slowly come to realize that Uncle Fred was a giant piece of shit. He had a long history of sexual assault against members of his own family, including Shula, Nsansa, and more recently a younger cousin, and who knows how many others. The entire extended family is seemingly aware of all this but has decided to sweep things away in a wave of denial, choosing instead to believe Uncle Fred was a great man loved by all. They direct their anger at Fred's young widow, whose family is a lower class of income, accusing her of not taking care of Fred enough, making her and her family unfit to inherit his estate. Shula quietly rides the wave of events brought on by her family, but her increasing rage is palpable, and she does her best to escape and spend time with her younger cousins, bonding over their shared trauma, unable to stomach the rest of the family's cruel repression of who Uncle Fred really was.
All the while, Shula is beset by dream-memories in a series of flashbacks that incorporate an old children's television program about animals that Shula used to watch. A zookeeper explains how the guinea fowl is one of the most important animals in the region, as their chattering helps keep the rest of the animals safe by warning them of potential predators. It's a clever device that immediately brings the themes of the movie into focus, urging Shula and her younger cousins to use their voices. Nyoni maybe dips into these flashbacks a little too often, but they are well edited into the narrative and provide a touch of the surreal to the situation, mirroring how Shula must feel as if she is walking through some kind of bad dream as her family continues to collectively repress Uncle Fred's true nature.
There is clearly some cultural context that I, as an American, am missing here, but this much is clear in any language: it is a tragedy that no one is protecting these young women. In one particularly harrowing scene, Shula's mother and aunties confront Shula and Nsansa as they hide in the kitchen, getting all the way up to the point of admitting that they all know what has been done to these girls, but stop short, offering nothing more than a futile song. They as a family have made their choice, and that choice is devastating to Shula and Nsansa.
It's a bold piece of work that dares to angrily defy tradition, and sparks hope that the younger and future generations will sound the alarm and bring about change. Our elders and their traditions can be respected and their experiences met with empathy, but things need to move forward; they simply cannot be allowed to go on in this manner. This movie will leave people angry, sure, but hopefully it will also further encourage them to speak up, even against their own families, when these kinds of injustices are going unpunished.
