Lagos. Unsettled by a vague sense of imminent danger, an eight-year-old is sent out of Sunday school for what is framed as idle distraction. Outside the church’s walls, she encounters an animalistic world of hypocrite adults and dereliction, where her premonitions begin to unfold.

Before his acclaimed coming-of-age drama My Father’s Shadow Akinola Davies Jr. directed this short, also cowritten with his brother. Trailing after an inquisitive girl in search of truths unpreached, Lizard gives grand shape to her irreverent quest through its majestic use of architecture and light.