On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
A24 | Release Date: March 7, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMar 13, 2025
This is one of the year’s best films, a heartbreaking stunner that’s not easily shaken. Read full review
100
The New YorkerJustin ChangMar 10, 2025
It is taut, absorbing, and, at ninety-nine minutes, ruthlessly concise. But what it bears witness to, over several days and nights of funeral rites, is a staggering endurance test, in which Shula is tasked with honoring the dishonorable. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 8, 2025
Nyoni’s direction is brilliant, contrasting the chaos of Uncle Fred’s multi-day funeral with the stillness and solace Shula finds in her cousins’ company. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMar 7, 2025
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is an uncomfortable but entrancing watch, a tribute to shattering silence around family secrets and bucking tradition for the sake of empathy. Read full review
91
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpMar 18, 2025
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl details the ways tradition is exploited and warped, and to whom’s favor, gently at times, and with a steely edge at others. Read full review
91
The Film StageMichael FrankOct 23, 2024
The writer-director never rushes this story, but still wastes no time in the film––each scene contains weight and value. Each moment builds on the memories of Shula and of the women in this family, fractured together, constantly reminded of monstrosities, somehow still taking steps forward. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 19, 2025
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is not the first film about family secrets coming to light through grief, but it may be the most original. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 9, 2025
In its atmosphere of gnawing discomfort with imposed secrecy about bad men, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is a uniquely dimensional work of character and temporality. Nyoni’s brilliance is in portraying the gap between public and private, past and present, as spaces where submerged feelings awkwardly co-exist, leaving nobody able to feel truly whole. Read full review
90
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 7, 2025
There are surreal and absurdist touches throughout Nyoni’s second feature, and like the Zambian filmmaker’s awe-inspiring debut, I Am Not a Witch (2017), it proves she has a perfect sense of how to blend no-nonsense realism with its more magical counterpart. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 6, 2025
[Nyoni] says all she needs to with each lapidary image, with every resonant silence and with the undaunted power of Shula’s gaze. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 6, 2024
The off-kilter, absurdist vibe of the picture is enchanting, but it’s rooted in deep horror: The whole movie is about the ways that cruelty and injustice become codified. Sometimes, the only way to preserve your sanity is to go a little insane yourself. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 18, 2024
Blending molasses-dark comedy with searing poetic realism to capture contemporary Zambian society at a generational impasse between staunch tradition and social progress, this is palpably new, future-minded filmmaking, at once intrepidly daring and rigorously poised. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMay 18, 2024
Perhaps what’s most impressive about On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is Nyoni’s respect for subtext. Her film doesn’t aim to be a guide, a balm or an ode to forgiveness. The director rejects the ease of over-explanation and allure of an exclusively reverential tone. She reaches for honesty, and what she uncovers is at once disquieting and deeply absorbing. Read full review
88
Washington PostTy BurrMar 14, 2025
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl draws a portrait of a culture with one foot in a 21st century of iPhones and laptops and the other in a crushing patriarchal hierarchy that goes back millennia and that proves nearly impossible to upend. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 14, 2025
This is a poetic-realist vision with grace notes of wit and surrealism. It is a calm, visually assured statement of shared rage. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMar 5, 2025
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. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 18, 2024
The scarring power of Nyoni’s film ignites from Shula’s eventual realization that she would rather torch her family to the ground than let them forget what happened. Read full review
81
TheWrapSteve PondMay 18, 2024
The film can be confusing, but it’s not meant to be pinned down. And despite the occasionally surreal touches, it’s an examination of how the beauty of tradition can also be an opponent to justice and humanity. Read full review
80
ColliderJeff EwingMar 12, 2025
It's anchored by a wonderful central performance from Susan Chardy, who finds layers of nuance in Shula as her anger over the situation bubbles to the surface. It's an excellent film, and a strong display of talent across the board. Read full review
80
EmpireKambole CampbellJan 2, 2025
Rungano Nyoni is one of the most exciting voices in cinema today and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is abject proof: a disquieting, blistering examination of a family where social status trumps blood ties. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 16, 2024
Nyoni’s Zambia-set film, using the Bemba language and English, deftly juggles humour with pathos, domestic drama with surreal fantasy flourishes. It’s dizzyingly creative and rather special. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyDec 5, 2024
With the cinematographer David Gallego, the sound designer Olivier Dandré and a superb ensemble cast, Nyoni has crafted indelible tableaux, powered by dark survivors’ humour, blistering originality and retaliatory fury. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongDec 5, 2024
Anchored by Susan Chardy’s restrained performance, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl might touch on hot-button themes of sexual violence, misogyny and familial cycles of abuse, but Rungano Nyoni finds her own intriguing language to explore them. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 21, 2025
From the moment Shula first appears in On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, director Rungano Nyoni lets the quiet charisma of actress Susan Chardy subtly dominate the screen. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineGregory NussenOct 7, 2024
Rugano Nyoni’s critique of her native country’s gender-based discrimination is as acerbic as it is unforgiving. Read full review
70
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonSep 9, 2024
It isn’t just stellar filmmaking, it’s necessary viewing for those of us aching to break the cycle of abuse. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 18, 2024
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is a formally daring picture that blends fantasy, stylised drama and elements of black comedy to explore the societal pressures that rewrite the truth. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 18, 2024
While it’s such an intriguing idea, an almost absurdist scrutiny of what avoidance looks like and how families choreograph their collective denial, there is something a little bit contrived in it and, though always engaged, I found myself longing for some outright passion or rage or confrontation. Read full review
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