WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: Fractured nation, fractured family: The politics and precarity of fatherhood in turbulent times
At the European Film Festival South Africa, three films trace how fatherhood bends under social and political collapse, exploring absent fathers, surrogate kinship and fragile belonging across nations.
The 2026 European Film Festival South Africa highlights the complex dynamics of fatherhood amidst social and political upheaval through three distinct films. In Nigeria, "My Father's Shadow" follows two young brothers and their estranged father as they navigate a day in Lagos, all while grappling with the lingering effects of political instability.
In 1949 Germany, the black-and-white film "Fatherland" explores the emotional struggle of Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his grown daughter as they reconnect with their fractured homeland. Finally, Tiago Guedes' "Aquí," inspired by JM Coetzee's trilogy, delves into the concept of surrogate kinship when a child is separated from his biological mother during a dystopian-like migration.
Across all three films, fatherhood is explored against the backdrop of societal and political struggle, revealing the fragility of familial bonds in turbulent times.
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