Half of a Yellow Sun

I beg to disagree with many of the other (negative) reviews. I believe that the movie communicated the right intensity. It's not about the book, it's about a story needing to be told. I'm a Nigerian who is closely intimidated with the war and the true story, and this film did enough to express the reality of it on many levels. I especially appreciated the live footage. I've been reading memoirs from a variety of ethnicities who were involved in the war, and this movie shows a story that is consistent with all of their stories. It's only one perspective, and fictional at that. I would recommend this movie to anyone and everyone interested in Nigerian history and heritage.

My 2 cents......... if you want to do a movie about Nigerians, why should you work with a foreign cast? I may be wrong, but i think the director would have done better with an all- Nigerian cast. They would have interpreted their roles better. For Pete's sakes, this is a story about a civil war! I have a major problem with the cast. Thandie Newton was so so not fluid at all; Anika Noni Rose was OK; but the major disappointment I saw in the movie is from Chiwetel Ejiofor of "12 Years a Slave" I believe he did not put in half his best at all. The whole thing boils down to the directing. It lacked depth. But I believe there is still room for change and they can do better than this parody of a best selling book turned movie. And yes! i read the book and I am saying that if you have read the book, watch the movie, only if you can look past the passive acting and bad direction. i give it a 6

I watched this film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It is an Okay film for the first-time director Biyi Bandele - jumping straight to big budget film ($10M). Nevertheless,  it does not deserve the golden award for best feature film. ZIFF is promoting mediocrity. There were other local African films that deserve the award - as 'local' is one of ZIFF main criteria. ZIFF is a not-for- profit organization, and it functions no different than the big-name for-profit festivals. If you don't know what I am talking about - watch the documentary Official Rejection (2009).

Hollywood actors, big-name producers from Constant Gardener, and expensive special effects did not embellish the poor directing skills of Biyi Bandele. 

To be successful in his next film project, I advise Biyi to first divorce himself from his novelist style. 

Just as acting-for-play is different than acting-for-film; the same rule applies to writing a book vs a film script; directing a play vs directing a film.

Biyi does not yet understand the job of a director. There are certainly a LOT of specific directorial responsibilities that he needs to master to become a good director.

1st Oct, 1960, Nigeria got its Independence from British and as it always, it came with a price. The partition, Republic of Biafra was formed .. a farewell present from Brits!!!! And that followed by a failed coup led by Major Nzeogwu.. then in 1966 Anti Igbo Pogom (Genocide) happened and some 10000a-30000 Igbos were killed in northern Nigeria. Later that decade, oil was found in Biafra.. and that triggered a civil war.. the story centers around this war. It is based on a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It Is somewhat in spate and comes short of showing the true horrors of those times...with run-of-the-mill performances, the movie does not come together as powerful or a whole. However, came to know about the dark chapters of Nigerian history. And also, learnt few things as in Nigeria, women are paid bride price - dowry and that Nigerians love wine - they always have both alcoholic and nonalcoholic wines!

I have consumed nearly all of Ms Adichie. While I was 'Literature in English' subject teacher in 2012, 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'Half of A Yellow Sun' were in the prescribed literary texts list. Thus, in 2012, my students and I ate Half of A Yellow Sun, even every word and punctuation. Fast forward to 2014 when we geared for the Nigerian release of the movie adaptation, hopes were dashed however when the movie received a tentative ban from the government who feared that it (Half of A Yellow Sun Movie) might incite violence and start a second civil war. "Ok, this movie must be the s**t" but no it wasn't.

You can only only imagine how weak and watery the movie script was. But wait, you don't need to imagine, the movie shows it all. I tortured my brain to see the movie 'til the end, and that was because I had read the book. What about people who hadn't read that fine novel? They were served trash. I know a film adaptation cannot do justice to a book of almost 500 pages but Biyi Bandele could have avoided the pitfalls. I'm sure he was awestruck by the novel that he felt he owed CNA a duty to copy and paste everything from the novel into the film ( but he should have been warned). Better still he should have used a 'based upon' approach rather than this verbatim adaptation, and we still would be OK.

Getting to the nucleus of what a book is truly about is the cue to an adaptation. I'm not sure Biyi knew that. Maybe now he knows that some scenes were not needed in the movie. However, thank God I read the book.