MIFF 2025 Film Review - Pasa Faho
Images courtesy of Common State.
It can be easy to find yourself in a bubble of your own world but the right film, the right story, can open your eyes to the universality of the human experience. Pasa Faho, directed by Kalu Oji, is a much needed empathetic story of a father and son reconnecting across cultural divides.
This film is mostly centred around the father, Azibuike, anIgbo-born man living in Australia, who owns a shoe store in Melbourne. Azibuike, caring for his 12 year old son Obinna, faces challenges to his shop, his family, and his community, and is all the while trying to understand the man his son is trying to be. But what is the identity of a child born into two worlds? What is Azibuike’s identity as a migrant who has now lived in two worlds? This film delicately allows these questions to churn through the characters, with the answer feeling both undefined and personal.
The heart of the film is the dynamic between father and son. Obinna, who has been living with his white mother, is now deemed old enough to learn not only how to be a man but an Igbo man. However, Obinna seems to be largely estranged to the strong sense of tradition his dad carries, and in this tension Oji plays with the push and pull between the parents who immigrated and their children born separate from their country.
The most impressive part of the film is how delicately space is handled: the country is clearly Australia, however they haven’t stooped to putting in every defining characteristic of the Aussie landscape - it makes the houses, the heat, and the market feel authentic. These are spaces where communities are made when you immigrate, and that’s the heart - the community you have to build and the community you choose to keep. Okey Bakassi as Azibuike, does a wonderful job as a man trying to hold onto his community while learning what his new world could look like - his acting holds a charm and character that is fun to watch.
Pasa Faho is incredibly charming, thoughtful and real. It’s a joy to watch an Australian film that deals with the possibility of our identity being more about opportunity and community.
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Pasa Faho screened as part of the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival. For more info, click here.