I continue to admire the fresh film ideas and invention, backed by A24 and Picturehouse Entertainment in this case, and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl certainly looks to continue that welcome trend, with this hypnotic trailer from Writer/Director Rungano Nyoni.

In the film, we follow Shula (Susan Chardy), who driving on an empty road in the middle of the night, discovers the body of her uncle. As funeral plans begin to come together, and grief is shared across the community, Shula and her cousins begin to shed light on the secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in a surreal and vibrant reckoning that’s inspired by the lies we tell ourselves. 

Also starring Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri, take a watch now and read on for a few quotes from the director on her process of making the film:

The film is centred around a days-long funeral that takes place in Zambia. Is that common to the funereal process in Zambia?

I am writing a story centred around a predominantly Bemba family, and our tribe has its own specific ways of carrying out funerals. But each family has its own traditions. In the past, when we all lived in villages, when someone died you let out a very specific cry. It was loud and piercing wail. It was meant to inform the neighbours and the surrounding village that someone has died. Then everyone automatically descends to the source of the cry. The person was normally buried on the same day.

But because so many people are living in cities, and people are coming from far, and you’re waiting for everyone to arrive, the burial is postponed. So, what usually ends up happening is you sleep in the house until the day of the burial. That’s why funerals, in the end, take a couple of days. You are not supposed to bathe when someone dies, until the burial. Some people observe it, others don’t.

Usually women sleep inside, and the men sleep outside in a tent. There’s a mourning room that the main mourners stay in, where people can come to pay their respects. Shula’s duty throughout this funeral is to her mother and entire family because they’re alive and they’re grieving. Funerals tend to be choreographed around hosting the mourners who have come to pay their respects. So, anything that we do that centre around the funeral is practical, and for the people left behind. Everyone knows their role and executes it quite efficiently. You cook, wash, clean, mourn and repeat until the burial takes place.

Tell me about the shooting style and look you wanted to achieve here with your cinematographer David Gallego. It often feels both very real and naturalistic, but then blends with the surreal.

I wouldn’t say its naturalistic. I think its quite choreographed — or perhaps a mixture.

We used a lot of dolly shots, as I don’t like handheld for this. Normally I don’t come in with a lot of reference images from other films, otherwise I think I’ll try to mimic that film. We sort of discover the language as we go along. I also don’t want — and that’s why David is so important as a cinematographer, there are very few people like that — to exotify Zambians or Africans or my people. I don’t want to make them into some kind of National Geographic version of a film. I don’t want to indulge in trying to explain too much.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl opens in UK and Irish cinemas on 6th December, from Picturehouse Entertainment