Director: Biyi Bandele.
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, John Boyega, Joseph Mawle, Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji and O.C. Ukeje.
Running Time: 111 minutes.
Certificate: 15.
Synopsis: Sisters Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) both have a lot going for them. They’re intelligent young women, newly returned to their home country after an English education. However, the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War soon changes everything irrevocably.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s popular and well-received Half of a Yellow Sun successfully examined the political through the personal, exploring the horrors of the Biafran War through the viewpoints of three Nigerians and one Englishman and going on to win the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007. Hopes were therefore high for Biyi Bandele’s film; hopes which his debut feature has failed to live up to. Yes, you should judge a film by its own merits rather than those of the book, but Bandele has certainly missed a trick or two in this adaptation.
Gone is the shifting viewpoint between disparate but interlinked characters, as well as the non-linear structure which added so much resonance. Instead we’re left with a straightforward feature which focuses unashamedly on Olanna and her relationship with revolutionary professor, Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), at the expense of all the other characters.
Newton is utterly convincing as the intelligent and forward-thinking Olanna. She’s certainly interesting, gutsy and sympathetic enough that we enjoy her company, however this means there are so many other stories that are simply sidelined. Poised and aloof twin sister Kainene and her shambling novel-writing lover, Richard (Joseph Mawle), are hugely underused. What does this beautiful but distant woman see in someone so unassuming? Even more neglected is houseboy, Ugwu (John Boyega). Instead of being a focal point as in the novel, he almost seems like an afterthought – and a plot device in later scenes – so, rather than a rich tapestry of lives affected by war we simply get sucked into all the problems in Olanna’s love life.
It’s perhaps a pacing issue too. So much time is spent on the setup, that when war finally breaks out you find your attention drifting. But that’s not to say that Bandele’s recreation of ‘60s pre-war intellectual Nigeria isn’t fascinating. Some of the most memorable scenes are of academics sitting around debating politics, looking like they belong in a Mary Quant catalogue, all whilst on the cusp of revolution.
Odenigbo is full of ideals but completely flawed. However Chiwetel Ejiofor (fresh from his performance in 12 YEARS A SLAVE) makes him charismatic and we understand why Olanna can’t leave him, despite his wandering eye. There’s some great scenes showing the clash between old and new traditions, too. Odenigbo’s mother is decidedly old-school. In fact, she’s so unkeen on Olanna that she runs around the neighbourhood calling her a witch. Like the mummy’s boy he is, Odenigbo won’t say a word.
And then there’s the war scenes. True, some of these are certainly affecting. One in particular, when Richard is at the airport and gets caught up in a shocking and brutal event, is difficult to watch. But much of the war is shown through old newsreel clips, a technique which seems a clunky and perhaps unnecessary piece of exposition.
By the time the downbeat ending arrives, you feel you’ve only scratched the surface of HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. Stuck between war epic and family saga (but without the finesse to straddle both spheres), it all ends up a bit too safe, a bit too formulaic, and a bit too close to soap-opera.
[usr=2] HALF OF A YELLOW SUN is released in UK cinemas on Friday 11th April, 2014.
