My Father’s Shadow by Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies has earned a special mention in the Camera d’Or for best first film category at the just concluded Cannes film festival.

The 78th edition of the festival ended Saturday on the French Riviera with the award of its top prize, the Palme d’Or.

My Father’s Shadow was the first Nigerian film to make the grade at Cannes since the festival began nearly 80 years ago.

Akinola Davies’s first feature is set during the 1993 coup, a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s recent history, when the military annulled the election and General Sani Abacha eventually took power.

The film — which The Guardian praised as “rich, heartfelt and rewarding” — follows a father and his two sons on an odyssey through Lagos just as the military “pulled the rug away from dreams of democracy”.

This “lost chance” when Akinola said the “rug was pulled away and everyone’s dreams of democracy were just taken away”, still marks the country.

The semi-autobiographical story, featuring “Gangs of London” actor Sope Dirisu, has two small boys following their father through Lagos as the coup unfolds.
He brings his boys from the village to Lagos in the vain attempt to get the months of backpay he is owed.

He may be a good man but he is far from flawless as they discover that his eye has wandered from his wife in the big smoke.

“The film is about the boys being able to hold their father accountable… And because they get to see how to be accountable they can be accountable themselves,” filmmaker Akinola Davies told AFP.

Here is a list of the winners in the festival’s main competition:
– Palme d’Or: Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just an Accident” (Iran)
– Grand Prix: Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value” (Norway)
– Jury prize: Oliver Laxe for “Sirat” (Spain-France) and Mascha Schilinski for “Sound of Falling” (Germany)
– Best director: Kleber Mendonca Filho for “The Secret Agent” (Brazil)
– Best actress: Nadia Melliti for “The Little Sister” (France)
– Best actor: Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent” (Brazil)
– Special prize: Bi Gan for “Resurrection” (China)
– Best screenplay: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for “Young Mothers” (Belgium)
– Camera d’Or for best first film: Hasan Hadi for “The President’s Cake” (Iraq). Special mention for “My Father’s Shadow” by Akinola Davies (Nigeria-Britain)
– Best short film: Tawfeek Barhom for “I Am Glad You’re Dead Now” (Palestine-Greece-France)