Half of a Yellow Sun

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!

Seriously, going to the readers review, I feel a lot of injustice is being done to this film. This is an adaptation hence you don't expect them to play all the parts as depicted in the book.

For a First time movie producer, Biyi Bandele has done a good job and should commended for it. I recommend that this movie should be watched by people who appreciates love in time of war.

The only cast I had a challenge with was Thandie Newton, who I believed overacted in a lot of scenes. Also we were unclear about the part of Captain Dutse(Hakeem Kae Kasim) in the film. Apart from those two points, all other aspects were spot on.

I am currently studying the book for my literature program, so I thought I would watch the movie just to visualize things and unfortunately I wish I had not done that because now I cannot unsee it Olanna is described as a bit curvy, Kainene has a cold personality but opposite is the case in the film. Ugwu appears for a few seconds, as if he is some extra character, the Kano massacre was so vague ,the tragedies that took place were just summarized, instead the director made it all about Olanna and Kainene and their man problems. The movie lacks the depth that the novel holds and has ruined the novel's prestige,to be honest . We don't even get to see Ugwu's transition from a naive rural boy to an almost well groomed young man, now literate and able to write a novel.My advice, go buy the book and read it instead because the visuals you will have when reading are much better than this movie.

It is a shame that this film is not much better known: it is a rarity for a British movie to have an African theme, African location shooting, source material from a black novelist, a black writer and director, and an almost exclusively black cast. But it is a pity that the film is not as successful as it could have been: too much of the work is sluggish and the script is often too leaden.

The title is a reference to the flag of Biafra, the breakaway Igbo-dominated province that provoked the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970, and the action is set in the decade following Nigeria's independence in 1960 and is seen through the eyes of Biafran characters who are struggling with their own relationship difficulties. The film is based on the novel of the same name by the Igbo Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the writer and first-time director is the Nigerian-born, London-based Biyi Bandele who was born to Yoruba parents but grew up in the northern part of the country in the Hausa cultural tradition.

Both novelist and director deserve recognition for focusing on a period of Nigerian history that still shapes the nation but is rarely in the public discourse and Bandele was right to insist on making the movie in Nigeria itself in spite of the difficulties.

The two leading actors - both of whom give excellent performances in spite of a poor script - are Chiwetel Ejiofor ("12 Years A Slave", who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents, and Thandie Newton ("Mission: Impossible II"), who was born in Britain to a black Zimbabwean mother and a white British father. Both are real talents who alone would make this film worth watching.

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.