On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a rich, textured tale of family secrets revealed during a traditional Zambian funeral. Thematically, it shows how patriarchal systems and customs are enforced by both men and women. There are some spoilers ahead.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl begins when Shula (Susan Chardy) returns to her home in Zambia where she attends a fancy dress party. (She apparently lives in England, because later we see her on a work call with a big team of white people.) Driving home from the party, she sees her Uncle Fred lying dead in the road. She’s completely unmoved by this, but she calls her mother, who subsides in hysterical crying. She calls her father to do something about his dead brother. He would rather return to his party. He asks Shula for some cash and says he’ll come.

She locks herself in her car and prepares to wait for her father to show up. Soon her cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) wanders by drunkenly holding a bottle of beer. Shula doesn’t want to talk to her, but eventually Nsansa gets into the car. She finds it hilarious that Uncle Fred is dead in the road, and near the front entrance of a brothel at that!

Nsansa calls the police, who tell the cousins to wait there until morning when they will have a car available to come take care of the body.

Plans for the funeral begin immediately. All Shula’s aunties show up, grieving demonstrably and judging Shula for not grieving properly. The women are expected to feed anyone who shows up and accept very specific orders for how plates should be prepared from the men.

Shula is sent to bring her cousin Bupe (Esther Singini) to the funeral. I couldn’t decide if Bupe was sick or what, but she had a way of collapsing that sent her to the hospital and required lots of heartfelt prayers.

The three cousins, Shula, Nsansa, and Bupe slowly revealed to each other that they had all been sexually abused by their Uncle Fred. These secrets were told with flashbacks, dreams, hints, and incomplete revelations.

The flashbacks explained the guinea fowl allegory. These talkative and noisy birds were considered useful companions for other animals because they warned of approaching danger.

The mothers and aunties refused to acknowledge Fred’s abuse. The men pretended it couldn’t be. The older generation wanted Fred remembered as a saint by the outside world. Among themselves, the families couldn’t wait to cast blame and fight like vultures over his home and belongings. They stripped his widow and children of everything.

Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, this highly original and unusual film is both funny and horrifying. Rungaro Nyoni was born in Zambia but grew up in Wales. She isn’t afraid to show the less than beautiful customs and traditions of the land of her birth, as she did in her earlier film I Am Not a Witch.

Susan Chardy gives an especially beautiful performance as she slowly understands her own childhood trauma at the hands of her uncle. The struggles of the three women cousins are touching and movingly told.

The characters speak with a mix of Bemba and English, so reading subtitles is essential. You can watch a trailer on YouTube. The film is streaming on Max or can be rented from Prime.