‘On Turning into a Guinea Fowl’ Assessment: Rungano Nyoni’s Zambian Drama

The physique lays inclined in the midst of the highway, an undisturbed mass straddling two lanes. Was the individual merely a drunk compelled to admire the celebrities because the world spun? Or did they’ve an accident?

Shula (a haunting Susan Chardy), the protagonist of Rungano Nyoni’s startling characteristic On Turning into a Guinea Fowl, didn’t plan to cease, however a pang of recognition beckons her as she drives down a dimly lit highway someplace in Zambia’s capital metropolis of Lusaka. She is aware of the person: He’s her uncle, and by the seems of his physique — chest nonetheless, eyes extensive open — he’s lifeless. 

That Nyoni’s second mission, which premiered at Cannes within the Un Sure Regard part, opens with loss of life is unsurprising. The Zambian-Welsh director’s curiosities lean into tragedy. Inside its shadowy expanse, she wrestles with and finds levity within the grim, the unsaid and the undesirable. In her debut characteristic, I Am Not a Witch, Nyoni uncovered the hypocrisy of witch camps via a quiet however precocious youngster. With outstanding management and a heavy dose of absurdity, Nyoni revealed the misogyny embedded inside, and the exploitative nature of, these advert hoc communities.

There’s an acidity to Nyoni’s filmmaking, an edge that complicates the humor. Laughing can appear gauche, even taboo. But it surely’s a software. “One of the simplest ways for me to vent this anger was via a merciless humour,” Nyoni mentioned of I Am Not a Witch in a 2017 interview with The Impartial, “it’s a Zambian sense of humour.” The director deploys the same tactic in On Turning into a Guinea Fowl, which confidently swerves between totally different tones. She fills the movie’s tragic body with comedian moments, hints of surrealism, stretches of thriller and pockets of rage. 

Anger bubbles beneath the floor of On Turning into a Guinea Fowl, though it may be arduous to inform from its surreal opening moments. As the primary notes of the Lijadu Sisters’ hit “Come on House” performs, Shula seems earlier than us, an alien determine wearing a black full-body inflatable jumpsuit (costume design is by Estelle Don Banda) and sporting darkish shades bejeweled with silver stones. When she comes throughout her Uncle Fred’s physique (Roy Chisha), she hops out of the automotive and waddles over to examine it. For a short second, Shula’s youthful self (Blessings Bhamjee) seems beside her, and each solemnly stare on the corpse. They seem neither frightened nor involved.

The apparition disappears, and Shula calls her father (Henry B.J. Phiri) to ship the information. He provides some half-hearted recommendation and makes use of the chance to ask for cash. Moments later, Shula’s cousin Nsansa (a wonderful Elizabeth Chisela) occurs upon the identical highway. She is drunk and appearing sort of annoying. 

Uncle Fred’s loss of life instigates an unsettling reckoning inside Shula’s household and between them and the deceased man’s spouse, Chichi (Norah Mwansa). The times-long Bemba funeral rites develop into websites of confrontations full with accusations, confessions and resurfaced secrets and techniques. On the heart of the melee in Shula’s household are Shula, Nsansa and their youngest cousin Bupe (Esther Singini), all of whom have been assaulted by Uncle Fred as youngsters. His loss of life reopens their wounds and presents a possibility for recourse. Whether or not or not they get to heal is a central thread in Nyoni’s movie. Uncle Fred’s new household — a poor younger girl and her brood of young children — current one other subject. Shula’s mom and aunts dismiss Chichi as a grifter and accuse her of negligence. She didn’t prepare dinner for or maintain Fred, they are saying, and due to that he died. 

Shula anchors On Turning into a Guinea Fowl. Her engagement with the funeral rituals — avoidant, sleepy, mocking after which defiant — act as a barometer for the severity of the familial pressure and the specter of sure revelations. At first, Shula tries to flee, leaving house for a resort. However the aunties present up at her door and, within the first of a collection of placing and claustrophobically staged scenes, ask Shula to return, shaming her for leaving within the first place. Nyoni, with DP David Gallego, construct On Turning into a Guinea Fowl on close-ups, utilizing them to calibrate the intimate temper. Typically the closeness is affectionate and virtually maternal; different occasions it suffocates, enveloping us in Shula’s nightmare. 

Amid the horrors of On Turning into a Guinea Fowl, Nyoni, who additionally wrote the screenplay, finds a variety of humor. When aimed on the tradition of secrecy inside Shula’s household, the cracks are acerbic and, at occasions, corrosive. However they may also be cathartic and self-protective, particularly when exchanged between Shula and Nsansa. Like guinea fowls recognizing a predator, the pair defend one another. Chardy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the director herself, and Chisela have an understated chemistry that aids in constructing their characters’ relationship. Whereas Shula is a quiet observer who finds some consolation in silence, Nsansa launches into monologues and fires off jokes. In them, Nyoni provides divergent fashions of dealing with traumatic experiences. 

Maybe what’s most spectacular about On Turning into a Guinea Fowl is Nyoni’s respect for subtext. Her movie doesn’t intention to be a information, a balm or an ode to forgiveness. The director rejects the convenience of over-explanation and attract of an solely reverential tone. She reaches for honesty, and what she uncovers is directly disquieting and deeply absorbing.