On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

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On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

PG-13

Mar 2025

1h 35m

Comedy

Drama

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100%

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103 Reviews

67%

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50+ Ratings

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni's surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.

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Critics Consensus

A vibrant exploration of family and social mores, On Becoming a Guineau Fowl marks another superb effort from writer-director Rungano Nyoni.

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Adam Kempenaar

Filmspotting

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a reckoning, and Nyoni proves to be a force as a filmmaker.

Rated: 4.5/5

Jul 12, 2025

Full Review

Claudia Puig

FilmWeek (LAist)

It feels so specific and also universal, which are my favorite kinds of movies.

May 9, 2025

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Dwight Brown

DwightBrownInk.com

Gets more thoughtful and empowering by the minute. A modern fable. A fable that’s a treasure.

Rated: 3.5/4

Apr 20, 2025

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Andrew Kendall

Stabroek News

What becomes thrilling about how Nyoni weaves the story in “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is how it slowly pulls back the curtain to both affirm and problematise our assumptions of where we assume it might lead.

Sep 19, 2025

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John Serba

Decider

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a powerful drama with a distinctively strong and original voice and vision.

Sep 10, 2025

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Patrick Beatty

ABC4 Utah

This is a tough but powerful watch that explores family dynamics, cultural traditions, and generational trauma being broken for the sake of truth and progress.

Sep 7, 2025

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Roman

Damn, ow, fantastic but ooooowwwww.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/25

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Christy L

Compelling story about death and cultural rituals in an entirely different setting.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/27/25

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Roy J

The sexual assault plot is hard-hitting, but I also found the Zambia culture depicted in the movie to be very compelling. Glad A24 distributed this African movie in the US.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/11/25

Full Review

Kai L.

This movie accomplished everything it set out to do in an intelligent if subtle way, one small bit of literalism aside. It's stylistic choices, presentation and ending reminded me much of any film by Sean Baker, who has also been known to fall into the literalism trap that mush-minded movie watchers have required of today's movie makers. It's laden with integrated metaphors that don't draw the story or characters even slightly off course to obtain as they are well rooted in place, but it takes a keen eye to spot them all, indicating at times the level of love, thought, and consideration that went into the making of this film. The film is slow, meant for people who haven't rotted their attention spans on social media, and mislabeled as a comedy, but it is powerful, potent, and potentially even important. Complainers citing the lack of trigger warning should realize that films tell you exactly what they're rated for, if only you choose to look.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/24/25

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Roger P

Way overrated. 100%, are you kidding me? Slow as molasses. terrible cinematography the screen is so dark the entire time it’s hard to see anything.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/22/25

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Fong Kok Hoong F

The unspoken horrors in the culture of silence and detached observations of family dramatics amid Zambian funeral traditions send chills in the disquietingly composed chronicle of a series of circumstances that ensue when the protagonist finds one night while driving home from a Halloween party her uncle lying dead by the road.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/13/25

Full Review

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On Becoming a Guinea Fowl: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni's surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.

Director: Rungano Nyoni
Producer: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Tim Cole
Screenwriter: Rungano Nyoni
Distributor: A24
Production Co: A24, BBC Film, Element Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Thematic Material|Sexual Abuse|Suggestive References|Some Drug Use)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 7, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 8, 2025
Runtime: 1h 35m

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