User reviews

Half A Yellow Sun really should have been a mini-series for television and that is the main problem here. It's an epic story with a plethora of characters being rammed into a small running time and as such it struggles to find its emotional center. Set in the late 1960s the film is set during the turmoil that followed Nigeria's independence. Accusations of tribal racism soon led to a civil war resulting in part of the country succeeding in its own state of Bifra - much of this is shown through the use of documentary clips and newsreel footage, which sadly were more interesting and engrossing than the actual movie.

The story centers around the relationship between two daughters, Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) are brought up in a wealthy politically connected household. Both filled with a sense of entitlement the two leads don't make for especially sympathetic characters though the gutsy dry witted Kainene grows on you after a while thanks to a great performance by Rose. Olanna is engaged to be married to political intellectual Odenigbo (Ejiofor) while Kainene is quick to jump between the sheets with white businessman Richard (Joseph Mawle) another characters perspective comes from newly appointed houseboy Ugbo (John Boyega) who cooks and cleans at the house of Olanna and Odenigbo and is a witness to Odenigbo infidelities.

Much of the early scenes is spent establishing tribal tension between Odenigbo's mother (Onyeka Onwenu - excellent performance) and Olanna and on Odenigbo having political discussions with other friends he invites over where he continues to blame the white man for the countries problems. The latter focuses on the tribal civil war that followed the break away state and is set over several years following the characters attempts to continue a normal life.

I have no doubt that the book, which I haven't read (but will as soon as I can get my hands on a copy) paints the characters in much more dimensions than was allowed here. Here in lies the flaws of this film - Characters are painted either too stereo typically such as Odenigbo who comes across as an annoying superior hypocrite or too thinly such as Richard whose core motivations and emotions are never real to us until the final reel. Olanna is given the most screen time and she is the least appealing of the main characters, allowing herself to be a victim one minute then abrasive the next with everyone around her. Much of the script feels forced and trite and there's too many other characters whose screen time is too little yet whose deaths are played out as having major importance and significance yet we struggle to remember who they really were. I'm surprised that such a big budget film was given to a first time director but then you can't really blame him pulled from pillar to post as I am sure he would have been - the film does reek of too many cooks and really should have been made into a mini series, this would have allowed a broader stroke of scenes and story line to make the main characters more appealing and also given the minor characters more of an impact so their loss is keenly felt once it comes. The acting here is really variable too with only Joseph Mawle in an extremely underwritten part and John Boyega coming through completely unscathed. It's not a film without its merits or strong moments but ultimately it is a flawed film that has no where near the emotional impact that it should have done and that is chiefly because you do not care about the characters on screen enough to be fully engaged in their journey.

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.

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.

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!

Review: I quite enjoyed this deep emotional drama about a couple in Nigeria in the 60's during a time of violence and crime, due to politics, and there own personal drama which gets from bad to worse. I was so glad when I saw that it wasn't going to be full of subtitles because that usually takes away the enjoyment of a movie. Anyway, the acting is brilliant from the 2 leading characters and they brought intensity and drama to there roles.the storyline was well put together by the director who portrayed that period extremely well. There are a few brutal moments which are quite deep and disturbing, but it brings more intensity to the movie and it really does show how scary it must have been to be in Nigeria during that period. Anyway, it's an emotional rollacoaster that deserved more money at the box office. 

Round-Up: After the success of 12 Years A Slave, I'm not surprised that they released this movie on DVD because Chiwetel Ejiofor is on fire at the moment. He is great with emotional roles as he has shown in Children Of Men, American Gangster and, of course, 12 Years A Slave, which is why he was perfect for this role. It obviously helps that he has Nigerian parents in real life so he must have felt looked deep within himself to get the right story across. The same goes for Thandie Newton who also played her part well and has the same type of background. She really has had a versatile career which spans from Mission Impssible to Run Fat Boy Run but it's just a shame that this movie didn't get the type of distribution that 12 Years A Slave did.

Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $53,000 (Terrible!)

I recommend this movie to people who are into there emotional, political set in Nigeria in the 60's. 6/10

This film is a great example of some incredible archive footage ruined by a boring, mediocre and incoherent film in between.

Yes, I have read the book. I wasn't expecting a literal screen translation of the book, as the book covers a vast array of characters, but I did expect the essence of it to be retained.

It wasn't.

The film follows the lives of twin sisters Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Akina Noni Rose) right after Nigeria gets its independence from the British and through to the Biafran war, as the Igbo people struggle to establish an independent republic. The film (similar to the book) tries to follow the lives of these 2 affluent young women, their relationships with men and with one another set against a significant historical event in Nigeria.

I went to watch this film specifically to support African Cinema and exited about a Nigerian Director making a film with a strong cast. I was bitterly disappointed with the lazy result.

Firstly the performances; Chiwetel Ejiofor is ever earnest in his role as Olanna's lover Odenigbo. He is OK, not offensive and gives a similar performance as he did in 12 years a slave. Thandie Newton is horrific. She has literally two expressions. I like to think its to do with the bad direction, someone should have told her she's over-acting .

The worst and best performance came from Odenigbo's Mother played by Onyeka Onwenu. What can I say. The best is that she was very entertaining, funny and a joy to watch. What made it the worst was that it belonged to a different film. A film I would have preferred to watch by the way. Her performance added a quality of a soap opera to the film. Anika had the strongest performance among them and deserves a mention for it.

The film has two parts, the first comes across as a cheap soap opera and the second, a cheap action movie. Choices that were made baffled me. Scenes played out that were pointless and didn't add much to the plot, making the first half plod along longer than it should have. The second half was riddled with inconsistencies and poor editing. Characters were introduced just as quickly as they were killed off. I am not sure why it was important to illustrate on a map were everyone was, that added nothing.

But the biggest problem with the film is that it lacked a director, a proper director. There wasn't anyone keeping the actors believable, controlling the movement of the camera, having a coherent edit or keeping tabs on the horrendous sound score.

Unbelievably the producers also produced Constant Gardener and should have known better than this. How can you allow an inexperienced Director to helm such a significant film? It's arrogant and irresponsible.

I am African (yes, I know it's a continent), I applaud any one trying to make our stories for an audience outside of the continent but this effort was so poor that I had to write about it. We can do much better than this.

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.

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.

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.

Remember to see the end of the review I got to know about this movie when my very good friend told me about it and the actors and I was like what? How can Chiwetel Ejiofor act in a Nigeria based movie,I know the movie has to do with UK and stuff but it was mainly in Nigeria. I know he's a Nigerian but,well I guess he gets paid to act,let's get back to the movie. The movie's talking about what a tribe in Nigeria did in the past just to gain independence and become a republic and how a man and his wife suffered from it and some other stuff going on in their life. I don't really watch Nigerian movies because I have got lot of hate for the country and his people but I wanted to watch this movie BC Chiwetel Ejiofor was in it. The one thing I didn't get is why the hell would you budget N1.60billion on a Nigeria movie that's rubbish,but you got top actors in it tho but it still ain't worth it. Its a really really nice movie for Nigerians and some others not just my type of movie. Its getting a 5+2 for Chiwetel Ejiofor being in it. Must watch Well if you don't agree with my review or you got any arguments,tweet me @iamowomizz

Half of a Yellow Sun is a fantastic novel, so any adaptation was going to be very difficult. Adapting a great book should be approached with care and most successful adaptations have focused on one or two key events or characters rather than try to retell the whole story. In this case, the adaptation attempted to tell the whole story and, subsequently, manages to avoid any depth as it simply skims along the surface in order to get the end. Often, scenes which serve no point other than to relay a piece of background information continually appear and it is shocking that such experienced film makers failed to guide the writer/director away from such obvious pitfalls. In order to accommodate as many details as possible from the novel, many superfluous scenes lead only to confusion and rely on the audience either having read the novel or having in-depth knowledge of Nigeria's history. Some characters appear only to serve as expositional devices. This film has one or two excellent performances DESPITE the material but generally the actors appear to be at a loss as to what to do. This is the director's first movie and it could that he wasn't comfortable with the pressures of time and of shooting out of sequence.

It is sad to be so 'down' on a movie that has its heart in the right place, and one can only imagine that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie must rue the day that she allowed her beautiful work to be adapted by someone who had little or no grasp of the screen writing process that could have turned out a great film script.

the only redeeming features of this film are that the use of colour is beautiful in places and there are a few good Nigerian character actors who give some engaging performances.

But oh my goodness if you've read the novel you will be stunned at how badly it has been brought to the screen. I noticed in the opening credits that Aidichie the author did not write the screenplay and it shows.

The acting is, by and large unconvincing, but what really weakens the novel is the very simplistic way that the complexities of the Biafran crisis are presented to the viewer. There's almost no way for someone with no background of the events concerned to make any sense of it all. And the film almost ignores the horrific atrocities, the atrocious famine and the way that the crisis was made worse by almost the entire political world turning a blind eye for four long years.

The editing is woeful with the plot taking place in several locations interspersed with archive BBC news footage. The scenes are all confined to static sets with few exceptions. Those exceptions are badly filmed 'action' shots with 1980s A-Team special effects.

Oh, and then it ended. Just like that.

Very very disappointing. Don't waste money on this at the cinema. Spend it instead on the excellent novel which I fear many will now not read because they think it will be as bad as the film.

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.

Two couples survive the woes of war in Biafra. Film for TV but with a complicated history. The war is not shown to be very bloody.

First of all, the sound in the movie is horrible. You can barely hear hushed conversations and I constantly had to keep raising and lowering the volume. Technical issues aside, the movie is well acted, but ultimately fails to make a connection. The historical events taking place are but a backdrop to a love story, and the drama between the sisters. It's biggest flaw is that it's just plain boring. It seems like the story is better served by the book because the movie feels compressed and at times disjointed. Despite the long running time it feels like there's a lot missing that might have brought the movie together.

Biyi Bandele's "Half of a Yellow Sun" is the first Nigerian movie that I've seen, and it's an impressive one. The focus is the Igbo people's attempt to establish an independent country, called Biafra, sparking the Nigerian Civil War.

This speaks to a broader point about the wars that have plagued Africa's most populous country since its independence. Nigeria, like the rest of the African countries, is a creation of the colonizers. The people who lived there had only thought of themselves as members of their ethnic groups, not as members of a defined polity. Sure enough, the person who became the new leader favored his own ethnic group, which was certain to cause tensions with the others. In fact, it was often the colonizers who defined the ethnicities. For example, the Belgians labeled the Rwandans as Hutu and Tutsi, leading to the 1994 genocide there. The one saving grace of the Rwandan Genocide is that the Rwandan people no longer label each other by ethnicity, they only see each other as countrymen. This probably won't be as easy in the much larger Nigeria, which also suffers terrible corruption.

Anyway, I found this to be a very good movie. I haven't read the novel on which it's based, but I'd like to. I hope that Bandele turns out more movies.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is a great, heart breaking novel; an evocation of four beautifully drawn, vivid characters whose lives are forever changed by the brutalities of the Biafran struggle, the Nigerian civil war. The opening few chapters draw us into the background against which the book's central characters must stand; the eventually disastrous effects of British colonialism, the contemptuous racism of the British ex pats, the depth and beauty of Igbo-Ukwu art, the enmity between the different peoples of Nigeria, the corruption, and the struggle for African identity, for self-determination and independence. This film replaces a superbly written, perfectly paced introduction with a single scene, that reduces one of the book's most complex meetings into two shots and a couple of lines of dialog. In short this film is so rushed, so much of a squeezed accordion, with no idea of what themes to lift from the page, that it renders the events confused, meaningless and, for those of us who gave read the book, entirely, unavoidably comical. It must go down as one of the worst cinematic adaptations of a book ever. How one could take such fabulous source material and produce such a hare-brained précis confounds me. This is a disgrace and an awful disservice to CNA. May Americanah fare better; Half of a Yellow Sun does not deserve this fate. Shame on this "film".

Thank God I read the book. This movie version does not do Chimamanda's story justice at all. They tried to do too much within just this one movie that clearly should have been broken down to capture the MULTIPLE stories within the main plot (I also agree with the miniseries idea). Most of the actors did not fit the roles- Kainene was NOT supposed to be as...open, as she was in the movie, for instance. There was a reason they were written a certain way in the novel, and sadly, whoever produced this movie did not understand this. I couldn't even focus on the movie long enough because the acting was just too cringe-worthy for the most part and the story line was way too superficial. Ugh, I'm so disappointed - READ THE BOOK!

I grew up in Britian where I knew many Nigerians, many of whom were doctors, lawyers and other professionals, and I remember the Nigerian Civil War over the secession of Biafra with the news media showing footage of starving people. I knew that Nigeria was one of the richest countries in Africa, with a large population, oil reserves, that the Igbo people of Nigeria were one of several ethnic groups and tended to be Christian, better educated and thus held most of the positions of power, to the resentment of the others, mainly the conservative Muslims in the North. I knew that the population of Nigeria was composed of many, many different tribes with different beliefs, and that as they did in the Middle East after WWI, the British had lumped them all together as one country regardless of ethnic and tribal differences. I could also name and locate several of the cities. Other than that, I had little idea of what Nigeria looks like, how the people live, what their homes are like. This film at least gave me some idea of what the country was like in the 60's, and for that reason I enjoyed seeing something fresh and different.

I found the film did not really address the civil war, the genocide, the famine and the religious strife other than barely touching on the subjects. Two million Igbo died in massacres and from starvation. We saw a young soldier killed at the airport after revealing that he was a Christian, but it was not made clear that their religion was one of the things held against the Igbo. The war continued for four years, and was partially prolonged by the western powers and Russia selling arms to both sides while Britain and Russia supported the Nigerian government. France supported Biafra. Once again a proxy war. the survivors continued to be persecuted after they returned to their homes, which had been taken over by others, as were their jobs. They were not reinstated nor were they compensated. Even their savings in banks were lost to devaluation and replacement of the currency, preventing them from starting over.

I did have trouble keeping up with the characters and felt that some of the actors had very little to work with, Richard Churchill for example. Joseph Mawle is a fine actor, yet his character was as insipid as bowl of jello. The other actors were Nigerian, of Nigerian descent, or in the case of Thandi Newton, half Kenyan, which made for greater authenticity. Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Boyega are British born Nigerians.

For an adaptation of a book, a film has too short a time. As other reviewers have pointed out, it would have been better as a mini series, then the time spent on the twins love life and their fiances' infidelities would not have appeared to dominate the story. Perhaps the war was intended to be merely a background to the romantic angle, but I felt we needed to see more of the war and the sufferings of the Igbo people. But that is just my opinion. It was refreshing to see a film set in Africa which was about the African people of today rather than the great white hunter and the colonial era. I have not read the book, but I will do so after seeing this film.

I hesitated viewing the film before reading the novel. After seeing the film, I am more intrigued about the novel and the history behind it. This is a GREAT FILM, make no mistake about it.

The staff and cast did a great job in tone, symbolism and portrayal. From reading the various reviews posted here, I get a sense that many feel either a film should stick directly to the way the novel unfolds; and that's certainly not the case.

The other major point of contention seems to be that the film is meant to "entertain". Though a movie should hold one's attention, the main point of this film is to enlighten the viewer, while adding another layer of protection to the viewer's sensibilities.

Adapted from Chimamanda Adichie's novel, Ben Bandele's film 'Half a Yellow Sun' tells the story of two Nigerian sisters whose lives are torn apart first by their marriages, and then by the Biafran War. Background on the latter is provided by the insertion of old news-film; this is necessary because the characters themselves seem quite univolved in the war, save as victims, and the film doesn't give us an understanding of exactly why the dispute broke out beyond a generic appeal to the legacy of racism left over from Empire. The lead characters have potential - a pair of strong, beautiful, hyper-priveleged and somewhat arrogant females, but the film never quite gives them the depth of critical treatment they need to become wholly interesting. As a consequence, the movie sort of rolled past me, without engaging, and I'm someone who has actively browsed the internet to learn more about the conflict. Maybe the book would have offered me more insight.

This movie is one that captured and then diminished my interest,but then captured it again. I have seen many movies that aim to depict the struggle of a people. Often they are tainted by Hollywood-style productions, which tend to dilute the emotional power they would otherwise have.Unfortunately, there was some of this here. However. Perhaps the majority of its viewers are fully aware of the tragic history of Nigeria in this era, including the formation of Biafra and the horrors in the aftermath of independence. For those who are, I would imagine that the telling of the story would be as gratefully appreciated as would food to the hungry. We in the west have not been graced with most of that history, because, unlike the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it has not been deemed relevant to our historical consciousness. So you might say that rating this movie could be guided by the need for bread, rather than the quest for bon-bons. I do not think the acting was bad, though it was not great. The level of trauma endured by those in the focus of the movie ( both the citizens generally and the main characters) puts in perspective what first world people have difficulty grasping, and lends insight into the reality that within every crisis there are still choices of conduct, and how these matter. I would have liked more linking of the role of the U.S. and Europe, specifically England, to the misfortunes of Nigeria- perhaps that was beyond the movie's scope. The footage in any case showed the cold, calculating mentality of the Royal Family as well as the English media in their involvement.The debate within political circles, and especially around the issue of 'the revolutionary', casts light on how misplaced optimism is so easily generated when change is desired. The ending, an update on the lives of the family,saved the viewers from the final insult of these lives being entirely frustrated by the debacle. Maybe that's a sentimental observation, but that's how it felt to me. I have seen Nigerian films that are nothing but soap operas, though even these have their merits, despite the protests of the high art crowd. I have seen movies such as 'Missing' by the noted director Costa-Gavras, that did not measurably exceed this in transcending Hollywood to tell an important story. So, you might say that this is a promising start for a new director. As an aside, and in conclusion, the name Nigeria comes up in a spell check, but not Biafra.