A reckoning in surreal, riveting ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’

Susan Chardy in a scene from “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (Chibesa Mulumba/A24)

Shula is driving home from a fancy dress party one night when she encounters an unusual sight in the middle of a country road: her Uncle Fred’s dead body.

But Shula, portrayed by Susan Chardy, does not behave in a way that we would expect. She doesn’t cry out in horror or appear the least bit upset or shocked by the sight. Instead, we sit there with her in silence, her in sunglasses and a silver helmeted mask adorned with sparkling rhinestones. Shula looks straight out of a music video as she stares off into the distance. This, we realize quickly, is going to be a thing. At the very least, it’s an inconvenience, ripping her out of her independent life and back into the throes of her traditional family, their patriarchal ways and all their crippling secrets.

This is the opening scene of “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni’s darkly comedic, stylish and hauntingly bizarre portrait of a Zambian family funeral. It is perhaps the first great film of 2025 — though it’s technically been awaiting its moment in the United States since 2024. It premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival and has already had a run in the U.K.

And it’s a post-Oscars treat to have something this great in the cinemas to shake audiences out of their end-of-the-road awards contender boredom. What better way to do it than with something so different, so vibrant and so unforgettable as “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” only the second feature from the self-taught filmmaker.

Nyoni centers this story around a dayslong funeral for this predominately Bemba family.

The elder women cry and wail and are cruel to Uncle Fred’s widow for not taking care of him. But there is an open secret that’s bubbling up to the surface now that Fred is dead: He was a predator and a pedophile whose abuse of the young women in his family stretches back decades. This is, most of the elders agree, something that should just be forgotten and buried along with Fred.

This is a society that remains bound to protecting the reputation and memory of a man whose actions continue to affect the women he violated: His wife; his young niece; Shula’s grown, often drunk cousin (Elizabeth Chisela). The women are just supposed to compartmentalize and move on — something the matriarchs seem largely on board with.

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” shares some spiritual DNA with “Women Talking,” in which mothers pass on traumas and secrets and the cycle goes on, despite even the best of intentions. Nyoni and her cinematographer David Gallego make this a transportive, stylish and unforgettable experience that powerfully transcends the specifics of its setting, while also taking audiences into an culture that’s likely unfamiliar.

The ending is not what one might call conclusive, but perhaps a litmus test for the individual viewer as to whether or not they’ll exit with hope or dread for what’s to come. And regardless, when you take a step back, “Guinea Fowl” cements the exciting arrival of a true filmmaker. LINDSEY BAHR, MDT/AP Film Writer

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” an A24 release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “thematic material, sexual abuse, suggestive references and some drug use.” Running time: 95 minutes.