Duval Timothy & CJ Mirra - My Father’s Shadow OST Duval Timothy & CJ Mirra

Duval and CJ craft a score of striking emotional depth — tender, transcendent and texturally rich. Centring Timothy’s piano and a palette of analogue studio devices, the music evokes the film’s period, its turbulence, its grief and its fleeting moments of joy. Across 12 tracks, the soundtrack stands as both a fully realised album and an integral narrative voice within the film.

The piano forms the emotional core of the soundtrack — played traditionally, felted, prepared with objects on the strings, and even used percussively, struck with mallets or strummed with tuning forks. These recordings were processed through vintage tape delays, early digital units and analogue gear to create a sonic world that mirrors the film’s era, atmosphere and 16mm film texture.

Set over a single day in Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, My Father’s Shadow follows an estranged father guiding his two young sons across the city as political unrest threatens their journey home.

The film premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2025 — the first Nigerian production ever selected for the official selection — where it received the Special Mention Caméra d’Or. It went on to earn 12 British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Score for Duval and CJ, Best Sound for CJ, and Best Director for Akinola Davies Jr., alongside multiple wins at The Gothams and festivals worldwide. The film is the UK’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars.