The BAFTA-winning director of I Am Not A Witch, Zambian-Welsh filmmaker Rungano Nyoni follows her 2017 debut with another exceptional effort. Impassioned, eccentric and blackly comic, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl unfolds in Zambia in the aftermath of a deeply problematic man’s death, and shines a penetrating light on generational tension, misogyny and dogged devotion to tradition.

The film follows Shula (the sensational Susan Chardy) who finds the body of her uncle Fred lying by the roadside as she returns from a friend’s fancy-dress party, with her drunken cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) soon joining her. Despite being painted as a jovial, fatherly character, it quickly transpires that Fred was an abuser of young girls, both inside his own family and across the wider community. As the funeral party descends upon her in the shape of her very vocally distraught mother and myriad similarly demonstrative relatives and friends, the shellshocked Shula is like the calm, controlled centre of an emotional storm.

On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is tremendously culturally insightful and idiosyncratic. Despite the upsetting subject matter, it is peppered with love and laughter, while things also turn surreal and dreamlike at points. As the funeral unfolds over several difficult days, Nyoni amps up the absurdity of celebrating such a toxic figure. This fiercely beautiful, admirably thoughtful film is striking in its female solidarity, with Shula watching out for her cousins and her uncle’s young widow. It’s savagely critical of a society that covers up for creeps, hanging hard on the hope that future generations have the will and courage for change.

On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is in cinemas from Friday 6 December.