Brit actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Boyega take centre stage in the film adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun, the Orange Prize winning novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The film, which also stars Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Joseph Mawle and Genevieve Nnaji, weaves together the lives of four people swept up in the turbulence of war.
Olanna (Newton) and Kainene (Rose) are glamorous twins from a wealthy Nigerian family. Returning to a privileged city life in newly independent 1960s Nigeria after their expensive English education, the two women make very different choices. Olanna shocks her family by going to live with her lover, the “revolutionary professor” Odenigbo (Ejiofor) and his devoted houseboy Ugwu (Boyega) in the dusty university town of Nsukka; Kainene turns out to be a fiercely successful businesswoman when she takes over the family interests, and surprises herself when she falls in love with Richard (Mawle) an English writer. Preoccupied by their romantic entanglements, and a betrayal between the sisters, the events of their life loom larger than politics. However, they become caught up in the events of the Nigerian civil war, in which the lgbo people fought an impassioned struggle to establish Biafra an independent republic, ending in chilling violence which shocked the entire country and the world.
Take a look at the trailer above. Half of a Yellow Sun will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
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