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Shula, the watchful heroine of the quietly stirring \u201cOn Becoming a Guinea Fowl,\u201d doesn\u2019t seem cut out for bold gestures. She\u2019s reserved, at times to the point of standoffishness and given to introspective silences. There\u2019s admirable grace to her composure but also an air of practiced caution. The only really obvious thing about Shula is that she has recently returned to her comfortable, suburban family home in Zambia, and that she would clearly prefer to mind her own business. When a mystery reopens old traumas that, in turn, lead to a bruising cultural reckoning, Shula soon finds herself minding everyone else\u2019s business, too.<\/p>\n
That discovery turns out to be the corpse of her Uncle Fred splayed on the road that Shula (the subtly magnetic newcomer Susan Chardy) is driving on one night. En route home from a party, Shula is wearing large sunglasses and a glittery silver headpiece<\/a> that suggests a bedazzled ancient military helmet. She looks like a glamorous alien, which she is, in a way. When she steps out to look at the body, you see that she\u2019s dressed in a ballooning black jumpsuit. If you inflated it, she could probably float away. Given what happens \u2014 and the mysterious girl who briefly materializes near the corpse \u2014 it\u2019s a surprise that she doesn\u2019t try.<\/p>\n Rungano Nyoni, who was born in Zambia and grew up in Wales, knows how to make an entrance, and so does Shula. She\u2019s a great character, and while her arresting introduction grabs you from the start, Shula keeps you tethered throughout. Hers is a story of discoveries both minor and monumental, one that\u2019s flecked with troubling visions and an escalating sense of urgency. Shula keeps her cool until she doesn\u2019t, and shortly after finding Fred\u2019s body, she is buffeted by different forces, including her sprawling family, acquaintances and a complex patrimony that threatens to engulf her. (This is Nyoni\u2019s second narrative feature; her first was \u201cI Am Not a Witch<\/a>,\u201d a 2018 drama about a Zambian orphan accused of witchcraft.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Shula\u2019s discovery of Fred\u2019s corpse leads to a series of encounters, by turns comic and anguished, in a winding story about family secrets, cultural norms and generational trauma. It\u2019s heavy, at times, painful, though not crushingly so. Much like her protagonist, Nyoni maintains an observant, quasi-analytic distance \u2014 the camerawork is suitably steady, calm \u2014 as the story grows more complicated and long-buried secrets are disinterred as the family arranges things. Even amid the growing emotional tumult, Shula keeps it together, which keeps the viewer at a remove. This gives you breathing and thinking space (you watch, too, and wait), but Shula\u2019s coolness also leaves you unprepared for when she sheds her reserve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Much of \u201cGuinea Fowl\u201d centers on Fred\u2019s funeral, an elaborate ceremony that seamlessly condenses the story\u2019s themes. Not long after Shula finds Fred\u2019s body, his corpse is trucked back to the family home and mourners quickly begin descending. Some arrive at the door on their knees in postures of supplication singing \u201cdeath comes crawling.\u201d Shula briefly flees, but relatives force her back home, which the female mourners effectively transform into a de facto stage. Some of the women wail with performative gusto, others gossip and sneak off to share drinks in the wings. At one point, Shula\u2019s cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela), a boisterous drunk, speaks her painful truth; so does another cousin, Bupe (Esther Singini).<\/p>\n As it unfolds, the funeral ceremony becomes a kind of movie within a movie, at times edging into near-documentary specificity. In the funeral\u2019s rituals and formations \u2014 in how attendees gather and separate as they strike alliances, voice complaints and settle scores \u2014 it also elegantly expresses the familial, cultural and social intricacies of Shula\u2019s world, both its attractions and its burdens. Inside the house, women crowd the kitchen preparing food, including for a smattering of men seated outside. When Shula asks what some would like to eat, she does so on her knees, echoing the supplicating mourners. As Nyoni does throughout, she doesn\u2019t embellish this scene; she doesn\u2019t need to. She says all she needs to with each lapidary image, with every resonant silence and with the undaunted power of Shula\u2019s gaze.<\/p>\n On Becoming a Guinea Fowl<\/strong>
Rated PG-13 for adult themes. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n