Latest news with #Nyoni
Daily Mirror
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Liverpool confirm wonderkid deal as another seven transfers announced
Liverpool have been one of the busiest Premier League clubs in the transfer market this summer but Arne Slot's side do not look likely to end their business any time soon Liverpool have had a stunning summer so far. Having lifted the Premier League title, Arne Slot has wasted no time in bolstering his squad. Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong have arrived from Bayer Levekusen, while Milos Kerkez has been drafted in from Bournemouth. Young goalkeeper Armin Pecsi has bolstered the club's goalkeeping ranks alongside Freddie Woodman, who is set to complete a free move from Preston North End. That is without even mentioning the imminent arrival of Giorgi Mamardashvilli, who was signed last summer from Valencia before returning to the La Liga side on loan. And the Reds might not even be done there. A striker is on the club's shortlist, while Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi is closing in on a move to Anfield. But will Liverpool get everything that they need before the window closes in September? There's still plenty of work to do so get up to date with all of the latest transfer news and rumours from the red half of Merseyside: Nyoni pens new contract Liverpool wonderkid Trey Nyoni has signed a new long-term deal at Liverpool after his breakout. The midfielder was signed from Leicester in 2023 and went straight into the Reds' youth ranks. But Nyoni got his chance last season under Arne Slot, making five senior appearances last term and becoming Liverpool's youngest ever player in Europe in the process. And it has now been confirmed that he has signed an extended deal at Anfield after turning 18. 'It means a lot, obviously supporting the club from young as well,' said Nyoni. 'So, it's a great feeling. But now I have to go out and show why I've earned this contract. I think it's just step by step, day by day, just becoming better every day, just improving as a player. 'I'm still young, there's a lot of improvement. That's the most important thing. I just have to repay them in that way.' Reds confirm exits While Nyoni is going nowhere, seven of his first-team colleagues have officially left Anfield at the end of their deals. Academy stars to have left include Jakub Orjzynski, Dominic Corness, Reece Trueman, Lee Jonas, Louis Enahoro-Marcus, Harry Evers and Jacob Poytress. All of their contracts expired on Monday. Fellow academy graduate Trent Alexander-Arnold would have been included on that list but sealed an early move to Real Madrid after Liverpool struck a deal with the Spanish giants. The defender has since been playing for his new side at the Club World Cup in the USA. Bayern eye Diaz Another player who could potentially be on the move is Luis Diaz. Barcelona have already been linked with the Colombian forward but it appears that they could face competition. As per Sky in Germany, Bayern Munich are also keeping tabs on Diaz. The Bundesliga giants gave reportedly gathered all relevant information on him, while Liverpool would be open to him leaving should they receive a satisfactory offer. Talks are yet to be opened between the two clubs but Liverpool are already on the hunt for a new winger. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Metro
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Liverpool's record-breaking prospect signs new contract at Anfield
Trey Nyoni has been handed a lovely 18th birthday present, with the record-breaking Liverpool prospect signing a new long-term contract at the club. The teenager has already made six first team appearances for the Reds, although is yet to make his Premier League debut. In February last year he made his senior debut for Liverpool in the FA Cup against Southampton and became the youngest ever player for the Reds in that tournament at 16 years 243 days. When he came off the bench against PSV in the Champions League in January this year he became Liverpool's youngest ever player in Europe at just 17 years and 213 days. Clearly he is well thought of at Anfield and has been rewarded with a new long-term deal, confirmed by the club on Monday afternoon. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. A statement from the club on Monday read: 'The midfielder, who turns 18 today, put pen to paper at the AXA Training Centre to extend his stay with the Reds, which began when he joined from Leicester City in September 2023. 'Nyoni played for the club's senior, U21s, U19s and U18s teams last season and has, to date, made six appearances at first-team level. 'An England U20 international, Nyoni is the fourth-youngest debutant in Liverpool's history after he came off the bench in an Emirates FA Cup win over Southampton in February 2024 at the age of 16 years and 243 days.' The central midfielder has plenty of competition to deal with in the first team, with the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Wataru Endo all vying for places. There are also fellow youngsters looking to break into Arne Slot's plans, with Stefan Bajcetic and Tyler Morton looking to make an impression. However, Nyoni was quick to catch the eye when Slot arrived on Merseyside last year, impressing the Dutchman in a friendly in America. More Trending 'Trey did well, he was involved in the goal with a spot on pass between the lines and he was involved in our biggest chance in the second half,' Slot said of the teenager after a win over Real Betis in Pittsburgh last summer. 'But he's only just turned 17 and his body still has to grow. We are really careful with him. He doesn't join every session. You can see his quality. He needs some time to grow to play at Premier League level but he's an interesting player.' It was Klopp who gave Nyoni his Liverpool debut, in a 3-0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup. After the match the German praised the performance of his team and picked out the young midfielder. 'We don't take these things for granted, it was super difficult tonight so we deserved to go through obviously, it was a top performance from a specific moment on, it was top, top, top, I loved it a lot,' said Klopp. 'We should not forget that Trey came on as well – what a player he is! Oh my God.' In December 2024 Nyoni was given his first start for the club in a 2-1 Carabao Cup win at Southampton. On fielding young players, Slot said after the victory: 'This club is known for this. These players train with us on a daily basis and it is nice to see they showed they can play at this level. Now the next step is to be capable of playing [regularly] for Liverpool.' MORE: Arsenal transfer odds: Could Gunners turn to Hugo Ekitike to end exhaustive search for new striker? MORE: Arsenal 'suddenly' consider signing £85m Liverpool and Chelsea transfer target MORE: Jonathan David transfer odds: Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle and Co up against it in race for Lille striker
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Her films put a uniquely surreal Africa on the map. Rungano Nyoni won't be limited by expectations
When A24 came aboard to distribute Rungano Nyoni's latest film, "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl," the director was a little wary. "A24 is such a brand — and brands always frighten me," she says over Zoom from an office space in Zambia where she stationed herself so she could get a good Wi-Fi signal for our interview. "And also Americans really scare me. It's really intense." She was also wondering why the company would want to get on board with a film from her country. "They hadn't done African films," says Nyoni, 42, in her British-inflected accent. "I was like, 'Why do they want to do an African film?' I was just very suspicious all the time. Normal people are happy about these things. But then I start thinking about: What are the consequences? What does this mean? Do they want a kidney? What is their style? I remember I was saying to my team, 'I don't think my film is very cool.'" For what it's worth, Nyoni's film is very cool, even though she constantly peppers her conversation with this kind of playful self-deprecation. Even as an outsider, you can understand why A24 would sign on. Nyoni made a splash in 2017 with her critically acclaimed first feature, "I Am Not a Witch," a blistering comic satire also set in Zambia about a young girl accused of witchcraft. Her second act, "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl," which arrives in theaters Friday, doubles down on her artistic vision, further solidifying Nyoni as one of the preeminent voices of today's African cinema. She is now afforded a global platform few filmmakers from the continent receive. Surreal and at times bracingly funny, the new movie follows Shula (Susan Chardy), who we first encounter driving home from a costume party on a dark and quiet road. (She's wearing the same look Missy Elliott had in her video for "The Rain," sparkly mask included.) There, Shula comes across the corpse of her Uncle Fred, lying in the gutter. After alerting the police and her family to the mysterious death, Shula is roped into the local mourning traditions. Slowly, though, you come to realize just what kind of man Fred was through the distressed faces of Shula and her other younger relatives. He was a serial sexual assaulter, a fact that is glossed over in the performative grieving of others. The movie premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where Nyoni won the directing prize in the Un Certain Regard section. "Being an African film is not easy because you don't have funding from Africa," Nyoni says. "So you have to have dual identities that sometimes it benefits for you to be African cinema, at times it benefits you to be something else. When we were going to Cannes, for example, there was a whole big debate about, 'This film is not Zambian.' I said, 'But it's Zambian.' They were like, 'No, it has to be British.'" Nyoni felt like part of her identity was being denied. (Cannes ended up listing the film as being from Zambia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.) Though she didn't want to take seven years to make a follow-up to "I Am Not a Witch," Nyoni says she needed time to recover from the experience. "It was harrowing," she recalls, a feeling that was related to "having to prove yourself" to financiers. But she adds that her set specifically posed a unique challenge given the "cultural differences" between working with a Zambian crew and a British one. "I think film sets are a mini representation of what can happen in the world, and it can get ugly," she says. "That's the nicest way I can put it. You see how people put themselves in a hierarchy and lower others." She found that the Zambian crew "probably suffered under that also because they are taken less seriously, and that I found really difficult." Having a foot in both African and European worlds, however, is in many ways what has defined Nyoni's life and career. Born in Zambia, her family left for Cardiff in Wales when she was about 9. Attending the University of Birmingham, where she initially studied business, she became entranced with Isabelle Huppert in Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher." "I watched this film a million times because I'm thinking: What magic is this, that I can be so involved with this unlikable woman?" Nyoni remembered. "I loved her, someone so different to me — that's power. I thought it was coming from Isabelle Huppert. I was like, she's great, I want to be like her. She did that thing to me. But then, of course, it's Haneke. It's everything. If I could do that for African cinema, people are just not connected to your world and then have them connect, I think that would be, for me, an amazing achievement." While her films can be quite critical of Zambian society, Nyoni herself has a "romantic" conception of the place. Around four months ago she returned to live there with her partner and her 3-year-old daughter; she wanted her kid to grow up in the same place she did. Nyoni also still cares for Maggie Mulubwa, the now-16-year-old actor who starred in "I Am Not a Witch." She jokes that she has relocated after every film. After "I Am Not a Witch" she went to Portugal. Still, it was Zambia — and a personal loss — that served as the inspiration for "Guinea Fowl." About three years ago, her grandmother died and the director came home for the funeral. Her great-uncle had issued a mandate from his village that they would not mourn his sister's death in typical Zambian fashion: No one would sleep over at the house; no one would wail in sorrow. That left Nyoni with downtime since she didn't have to cater to anyone. Still, she was restless. When she finally did sleep a bit, she had a dream that was "basically Shula's story in its very skeletal form." "I woke up and I went to my living room and started writing it out," she says. Nyoni loved her grandmother, just as she loved her uncle who had died not long before. But that love is what provoked her to make a film in which the exact opposite is the case. "When I was mourning my uncle, I remember turning to my partner and saying, 'Imagine if you don't love this person and you still have to do all this stuff.'" In "Guinea Fowl," the funeral rituals are tedious. The women in Shula's family have to both cook and clean for all the guests and are chided when they are not appropriately sad. All the while, the stress is augmented by the fact that the man whose life has ended caused a pain that has rippled through generations. Guinea fowl, small birds that can take down predators while working in groups, become an apt metaphor for the way the women bond together, as well as a haunting visual motif. (The film even includes a sidebar featuring an educational children's TV show, describing the creature.) Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Nyoni also infuses the film with dark humor, whether it's Shula's drunk cousin twerking on her car or that Missy Elliott outfit. "The tone is really important to me," Nyoni explains. "Sometimes it verges on: Am I trying to provoke people? You're trying to find the right balance. In funerals, a lot of funny, absurd things happen that I've witnessed. Like, people will mourn and then be on their phones." Nyoni understands that her films can give people the wrong impressions about how she feels about Zambia. She heard that people at a festival in Zimbabwe were offended by "Guinea Fowl." "Then I started playing my film in my head, like, oh, yeah, it does look offensive. It looks like I am really laughing at Zambian culture," she says. "I think people were just conflating." Sometimes her intentionally far-fetched embellishments don't register for audiences outside of her own country. "Literally, audience members thought we tie women to trucks, right?' the director remembers of an early reaction to "I Am Not a Witch" at the Toronto International Film Festival. 'And I thought, what have I done? I'm adding to this nonsense of what people think about Africa." She knows she can only be responsible for what she creates but also is still wrestling with how to present her world. "My biggest fight, more than reiterating stereotypes or cliches, is I am more afraid of dumbing down or watering down my culture for people just to make them understand it," she says. "I think I need to find a balance of contextualizing it without thinking like I'm patronizing people." For her future projects, Nyoni hopes to expand her horizons. She has another film in development set in Zambia, but also a movie with "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins' company Pastel that would shoot in Europe and a sci-fi project set in Botswana. She is intimidated by the sci-fi idea because it would require a lot of visual post work, which she says "scares" her. She almost wishes she could go back to school to learn how to do special effects. "That's what happens after you make your first film or your second," she says. "It ruins the illusion that you can do anything." But anything is exactly what she has achieved. Charmingly, Nyoni adds, "I'm neurotic anyway." Her modesty and nerves feel genuine. Sign up for Indie Focus, a weekly newsletter about movies and what's going on in the wild world of cinema. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In the subtly powerful ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,' stubborn wrongs linger during a funeral
What's the right way to grieve when the act won't forgive a crime? In Rungano Nyoni's entrancing, moody family drama 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,' a young woman (Susan Chardy) returns home to navigate rituals of mourning for a deceased uncle — formalities that clash with the reality of the monster he was. Nyoni's sophomore feature, which garnered her a directing prize at Cannes, follows her justly acclaimed 2017 debut 'I Am Not a Witch.' That semi-fanciful film was a deadpan spin on the ingrained misogyny that conveniently tags a steely, orphaned 9-year-old village girl as a sorceress. The British Zambian writer-director's new story, however, is more psychologically concentrated on individual pain and cultural power, specifically the damage that sin and silence wreak in matriarchal societies that internalize patriarchy. You don't need to be a middle-class Zambian or conversant in African tribal funerary customs to be caught up in this finely turned exploration of sexual abuse's long reach. The allusive, charged opening sequence alone would qualify as a devastating short film on the subject. Driving home from a costume soirée, Shula (Chardy) encounters a dead body in the road. We never see the man fully, but when she pulls off her futuristic party mask, the blank glare from her glittered eyes betrays cold recognition and a briefly inserted shot of her girlhood self (Blessings Bhamjee) wearing the evening's same billowy black party outfit evokes a chilling certainty. On the phone, Shula's dad (Henry B.J. Phiri) reacts as if it's some trick: 'Uncle Fred can't die — just sprinkle some water on him.' What does get revived is Shula's buried trauma, which in childhood led her to a fascination with the title bird's cautionary cry, and in the film's present day manifests itself through Chardy's mesmerizing, tense impassivity. (Also, visually, in one of Nyoni's more sublimely dreamlike touches, as a house prone to flooding.) With relatives pouring in, increasing the pressure to participate in a days-long funeral where forceful aunties police everyone's bereavement — even, cruelly, the young widow (Norah Mwansa) they all see as a gold digger — Shula searches for accountability from a gathering where family unity was always forged by ignoring open secrets. It nevertheless strengthens Shula's bond with her generation's other victims, a tart-humored cousin (a wonderful Elizabeth Chisela) prone to alcohol binges, and a sweet-faced college student (Esther Singini) who worrisomely falls into unconsciousness. In another scene, it fosters a shared revolt with the older women, who briefly allow their own sublimated pain to emerge. Confronting her father at his job about what's going unsaid regarding Uncle Fred, however, goes nowhere. 'Do we question the corpse?' is his aggravated response. That Nyoni films this scene from a distance — the film's only prominent living male character doesn't rate a close-up — says something. Justice, the movie argues, is in the hands of the women, should they recognize the obvious power they wield in their community. 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. In Nyoni's terrific compositions, special mention must be made of David Gallego's crisply evocative cinematography: interiors and exteriors of moonlit, shadowy depth that suggest an eternal night made palatable by pockets of haunting light. Even the day scenes feel tinged by darkness — especially when Shula visits her dead uncle's home to find a neglected hovel of forgotten children likely to be abandoned by her judgmental aunties. But it also sows the seeds for this hypnotic movie's striking final image, a moment of sunlight, the sound of birds and human fury. Silence and powerlessness can be tolerated for only so long.
Los Angeles Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Her films put a uniquely surreal Africa on the map. Rungano Nyoni won't be limited by expectations
When A24 came aboard to distribute Rungano Nyoni's latest film, 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,' the director was a little wary. 'A24 is such a brand — and brands always frighten me,' she says over Zoom from an office space in Zambia where she stationed herself so she could get a good Wi-Fi signal for our interview. 'And also Americans really scare me. It's really intense.' She was also wondering why the company would want to get on board with a film from her country. 'They hadn't done African films,' says Nyoni, 42, in her British-inflected accent. 'I was like, 'Why do they want to do an African film?' I was just very suspicious all the time. Normal people are happy about these things. But then I start thinking about: What are the consequences? What does this mean? Do they want a kidney? What is their style? I remember I was saying to my team, 'I don't think my film is very cool.'' For what it's worth, Nyoni's film is very cool, even though she constantly peppers her conversation with this kind of playful self-deprecation. Even as an outsider, you can understand why A24 would sign on. Nyoni made a splash in 2017 with her critically acclaimed first feature, 'I Am Not a Witch,' a blistering comic satire also set in Zambia about a young girl accused of witchcraft. Her second act, 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,' which arrives in theaters Friday, doubles down on her artistic vision, further solidifying Nyoni as one of the preeminent voices of today's African cinema. She is now afforded a global platform few filmmakers from the continent receive. Surreal and at times bracingly funny, the new movie follows Shula (Susan Chardy), who we first encounter driving home from a costume party on a dark and quiet road. (She's wearing the same look Missy Elliott had in her video for 'The Rain,' sparkly mask included.) There, Shula comes across the corpse of her Uncle Fred, lying in the gutter. After alerting the police and her family to the mysterious death, Shula is roped into the local mourning traditions. Slowly, though, you come to realize just what kind of man Fred was through the distressed faces of Shula and her other younger relatives. He was a serial sexual assaulter, a fact that is glossed over in the performative grieving of others. The movie premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where Nyoni won the directing prize in the Un Certain Regard section. 'Being an African film is not easy because you don't have funding from Africa,' Nyoni says. 'So you have to have dual identities that sometimes it benefits for you to be African cinema, at times it benefits you to be something else. When we were going to Cannes, for example, there was a whole big debate about, 'This film is not Zambian.' I said, 'But it's Zambian.' They were like, 'No, it has to be British.'' Nyoni felt like part of her identity was being denied. (Cannes ended up listing the film as being from Zambia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.) Though she didn't want to take seven years to make a follow-up to 'I Am Not a Witch,' Nyoni says she needed time to recover from the experience. 'It was harrowing,' she recalls, a feeling that was related to 'having to prove yourself' to financiers. But she adds that her set specifically posed a unique challenge given the 'cultural differences' between working with a Zambian crew and a British one. 'I think film sets are a mini representation of what can happen in the world, and it can get ugly,' she says. 'That's the nicest way I can put it. You see how people put themselves in a hierarchy and lower others.' She found that the Zambian crew 'probably suffered under that also because they are taken less seriously, and that I found really difficult.' Having a foot in both African and European worlds, however, is in many ways what has defined Nyoni's life and career. Born in Zambia, her family left for Cardiff in Wales when she was about 9. Attending the University of Birmingham, where she initially studied business, she became entranced with Isabelle Huppert in Michael Haneke's 'The Piano Teacher.' 'I watched this film a million times because I'm thinking: What magic is this, that I can be so involved with this unlikable woman?' Nyoni remembered. 'I loved her, someone so different to me — that's power. I thought it was coming from Isabelle Huppert. I was like, she's great, I want to be like her. She did that thing to me. But then, of course, it's Haneke. It's everything. If I could do that for African cinema, people are just not connected to your world and then have them connect, I think that would be, for me, an amazing achievement.' While her films can be quite critical of Zambian society, Nyoni herself has a 'romantic' conception of the place. Around four months ago she returned to live there with her partner and her 3-year-old daughter; she wanted her kid to grow up in the same place she did. Nyoni also still cares for Maggie Mulubwa, the now-16-year-old actor who starred in 'I Am Not a Witch.' She jokes that she has relocated after every film. After 'I Am Not a Witch' she went to Portugal. Still, it was Zambia — and a personal loss — that served as the inspiration for 'Guinea Fowl.' About three years ago, her grandmother died and the director came home for the funeral. Her great-uncle had issued a mandate from his village that they would not mourn his sister's death in typical Zambian fashion: No one would sleep over at the house; no one would wail in sorrow. That left Nyoni with downtime since she didn't have to cater to anyone. Still, she was restless. When she finally did sleep a bit, she had a dream that was 'basically Shula's story in its very skeletal form.' 'I woke up and I went to my living room and started writing it out,' she says. Nyoni loved her grandmother, just as she loved her uncle who had died not long before. But that love is what provoked her to make a film in which the exact opposite is the case. 'When I was mourning my uncle, I remember turning to my partner and saying, 'Imagine if you don't love this person and you still have to do all this stuff.'' In 'Guinea Fowl,' the funeral rituals are tedious. The women in Shula's family have to both cook and clean for all the guests and are chided when they are not appropriately sad. All the while, the stress is augmented by the fact that the man whose life has ended caused a pain that has rippled through generations. Guinea fowl, small birds that can take down predators while working in groups, become an apt metaphor for the way the women bond together, as well as a haunting visual motif. (The film even includes a sidebar featuring an educational children's TV show, describing the creature.) Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Nyoni also infuses the film with dark humor, whether it's Shula's drunk cousin twerking on her car or that Missy Elliott outfit. 'The tone is really important to me,' Nyoni explains. 'Sometimes it verges on: Am I trying to provoke people? You're trying to find the right balance. In funerals, a lot of funny, absurd things happen that I've witnessed. Like, people will mourn and then be on their phones.' Nyoni understands that her films can give people the wrong impressions about how she feels about Zambia. She heard that people at a festival in Zimbabwe were offended by 'Guinea Fowl.' 'Then I started playing my film in my head, like, oh, yeah, it does look offensive. It looks like I am really laughing at Zambian culture,' she says. 'I think people were just conflating.' Sometimes her intentionally far-fetched embellishments don't register for audiences outside of her own country. 'Literally, audience members thought we tie women to trucks, right?' the director remembers of an early reaction to 'I Am Not a Witch' at the Toronto International Film Festival. 'And I thought, what have I done? I'm adding to this nonsense of what people think about Africa.' She knows she can only be responsible for what she creates but also is still wrestling with how to present her world. 'My biggest fight, more than reiterating stereotypes or cliches, is I am more afraid of dumbing down or watering down my culture for people just to make them understand it,' she says. 'I think I need to find a balance of contextualizing it without thinking like I'm patronizing people.' For her future projects, Nyoni hopes to expand her horizons. She has another film in development set in Zambia, but also a movie with 'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins' company Pastel that would shoot in Europe and a sci-fi project set in Botswana. She is intimidated by the sci-fi idea because it would require a lot of visual post work, which she says 'scares' her. She almost wishes she could go back to school to learn how to do special effects. 'That's what happens after you make your first film or your second,' she says. 'It ruins the illusion that you can do anything.' But anything is exactly what she has achieved. Charmingly, Nyoni adds, 'I'm neurotic anyway.' Her modesty and nerves feel genuine.
