Sunday 30 March 2014

Half of a Yellow Sun premieres April 25 in Nigeria

A scene in the movie


The movie adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, which made its world premiere at the 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Canada, will be opened in Nigerian cinemas on Friday, April 25, 2014.
Directed by prolific UK-based Nigerian playwright, Biyi Bandele and produced by Andrea Calderwood (HBO’s Generation Kill, The Last King of Scotland: winner of three BAFTAs and an Oscar), the movie was premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival before it was later screened at the BFI London Film Festival. The film was released in Australia on March 27 and will be released in the United Kingdom in April 11, and in the US this summer.
It features talented actors such as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Genevieve Nnaji, Onyeka Onwenu, John Boyega and Wale Ojo.
Half Of A Yellow Sun, a novel published in 2006 and was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007, is a tale of two women during Nigeria’s independence and Nigerian-Biafran War between 1957 and 1970.
The film explores the tale of twin sisters Olanna (Thandie Newton), a professor’s beautiful young mistress who abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose). They are daughters of a rich businessman who follow different paths. Olanna falls in love with Odenigbo (Ejiofor), a university professor and a revolutionary activist who fathers a child by another woman, while Kainene is having a romantic affair with a white British writer (Joseph Mawle), who is in Nigeria to teach.
Olanna and Kainene flee to the south-eastern region of Nigeria where the Republic of Biafra is declared during the civil war. Olanna accepts Odenigbo’s illegitimate daughter as her own and as they flee. They have to live in increasing poverty, while Kainene moves from running a major company for her father to overseeing a refugee camp. The story celebrates the two ladies’ strength in the face of adversity.
Biyi Bandele did well as the director. The setting, makeup, costume and locations are perfect for the movie.

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