Half of a Yellow Sun sets box office record.

Half of a Yellow Sun, the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning international best-seller has set a new cinematic record. The Biyi Bandele-directed flick which was released into the Nigerian cinemas on August 1st has surpassed Marvel Studio’s ‘Guardian of Galaxy’ and other Nollywood movies for first weekend figures.
Although the amount it has pulled in hasn’t been revealed but it has edged out the likes of The Return of Jenifa which made about N10Million, Last Flight to Abuja N8.35Million, Phone Swap N3.72Million and Maami N3.30Million.

Half of a Yellow Sun movie finally gets greenlight

Good news to movie enthusiasts especially those who have been anticipating the release of the screen adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s award-winning book, Half of a Yellow sun. The movie has finally gotten a greenlight by the National Film & Video Censors Board (NFVCB) after months of delay. The Biyi-Bandele directed movie which was classified “18” has been approved for cinema release.

Why can't Nigerians see Half of a Yellow Sun? | By: Biyi Bandele.

When I heard last month that the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board, headquartered in Abuja, had indicated that it would be unable to issue certification for “Half of a Yellow Sun” in time for the film’s release date, I naturally assumed, at first, that what we were faced with was nothing more sinister than another instance of the typical, if frustrating, culture of wilful incompetence that we’d grappled with during the making of the film. While shooting the film in Nigeria two years ago, there were times when we felt ensnared in impenetrable jungles of red tape, when we would be given the go-head by one arm of the government only to find our path blocked by the other arm. I had no reason to assume that there might be anything more to it than that. I had no reason to assume, for instance, that the inability of the board to issue the film with a certificate might actually be a clumsy, heavy-handed ban in all but name.
After all, when the movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn, amongst the entourage of Nigerians who flew in to Toronto for the occasion was Patricia Bala, director-general of the Nigerian censorship board. Bala had arrived in Toronto — I was told — with several of her colleagues from the censor’s office. I know for a fact that they watched the movie. I do not know for a fact that they all liked it. I cannot say if any one of them stood up when, as the end credits rolled, the audience rose and gave the film three standing ovations. But I do know that Bala was gracious enough to tell us after the screening how much she loved the movie. At no point did she express any reservations about the contents of the film.
It is now nearly eight months since Bala and her board first saw the movie in Toronto and a few weeks since she and her board have failed to issue “Half of a Yellow Sun” the certification that it needs that the law requires it obtains before it can be shown in cinemas in Nigeria. In those several days I’ve been assailed on Twitter, Facebook, and by email with rumors, innuendos, half-truths, and downright lies, disseminated sometimes directly from the censorship board (they have issued at least one press statement), about why “Half of a Yellow Sun” still hasn’t been issued with a ratings certificate.
The board claims that he has not banned the film but certain aspects of it “have some unresolved issues which have to be sorted out in accordance with the law and laid down regulations.” It has been rumored that FilmOne, the Nigerian distributors of “Half of a Yellow Sun,” might have been late in submitting the film for certification. Not true. Most films that are screened in Nigerian cinemas are shown to the censor only a day or two before the films open to the paying public. In documentations that have been shown to me, there are instances even of movies being shown to the censor days after the movies had officially opened to the public. “Half of a Yellow Sun” was scheduled to open on April 25. It was submitted to the censorship board at least two weeks earlier.
I’ve also heard tell that the censorship board’s inability to make a decision about a ratings certificate for my film has been brought upon it because of a sudden concern that a movie that depicts scenes from the Biafra war might provoke “tribal violence” in a country that has in recent months been besieged with terrorist bombings and profoundly shaken by the abduction of over 200 school girls by Boko Haram.
Credit: www.cnn.com

Opinion: Whether Half of a Yellow Sun is banned or not, we’ll watch it. | By: Akindele Opeyemi

History continues to be a relevant discourse because history is our problem. I have always insisted that the unfettered massacre of the Igbos before, during and after the Biafran War (1967-1970) is like a guilty conscience. Nigeria as a country fruitlessly try to repress it, yet it keeps rearing its ugly head. Like the proverbial corpse buried in a hurry by a bunch of frantic murderers (thanks to rich Yoruba language), the fact of the Biafran War has again let one leg out of the grave. After it reared its ugly head in Achebe’s There was a Country, Nigeria was engulfed in hot debates largely over peripheral issues and details, rather than confront the heart of the matter. And we repressed it like a guilty conscience.
Here again, the Biafran corpse buried in a hurry has let out its leg in Chimamanda’s Half of a Yellow Sun! Now, Nigeria’s film board is trying to repress it. Though the novel upon which the movie is based was released years ago, why a seeming clampdown is being meted out on the movie is apparent: many couldn’t read Adichie’s novel due to high rates of illiteracy; and for those who are literate, endemic poverty means many still can’t afford to buy the novel. The BBC puts it succinctly: “The book was released in Nigeria but with the country’s high rates of illiteracy, a film is likely to get more attention.”
Half of a Yellow Sun reminds us of the moving movie -Sometimes in April- which recaptures the shocking reality of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Earlier in April, the whole world was touched as Rwandans -Hutu, Tutsi and Twa- all mourned the 1994 genocide of mostly Tutsi and moderate Hutus. Rwandans stood together. They accepted responsibility. They stooped. They were sorry for the massacre of their fellow countrymen. They immortalized the memory. They will not forget. They teach the history to their children in schools. They put the memories of what must not be allowed to happen again in the glare of all, especially the future generation. They said “Never again!”.
But not Nigeria. We have not taken responsibility for the unfettered pogrom against Igbos before and after the civil war. We still trade blames. We were not sorry. We are not sorry. And we are more eager to fight than any country in the world today, unfortunately. Like guilty conscience, the nagging compunctions are there, but we continue to repress it. Or why do some continue to make allusions to the Biafran War the way they do when national issues are raised? For instance, Murtala Nyako, Governor of Adamawa State (Boko Haram’s hotbed) recently made a false, paranoid claim that President Goodluck Jonathan is paying the northerners back for their role during the civil war (1967-1970) by sponsoring the terrorist Islamic sect and also using the military to commit genocide against northerners.
Elders of Northern Nigeria also insinuated the same line on reasoning when they claimed former Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika (of Igbo extraction) committed crimes against humanity and therefore should be tried at the Hague for his manner of conduct of anti-terror war against Boko Haram in the region. Such attempts to intertwine unrelated issues points to fundamental issues which are the largely unresolved.
We need to learn from Rwanda how to deal with our own history, and move forward. Indeed the director of the movie, Biyi Bandele, was right when he insisted that “One of the reasons Nigeria is more divided today – 40 years after the end of the war – than it was before the war started, is because we have refused to talk about the elephant in the room.” A callous attempt to ban Half of the Yellow Sun will even promote its popularity rather than deter us from watching it. The Jews have preserved memories of the Holocaust through movies, museums and novels. We can do the same in Nigeria
Credit: ynaija.com

Half Of A Yellow Sun movie delayed in Nigeria! (Official Statement)

Half Of A Yellow Sun film; adaptation of award-winning writer, Chimamanda Adichie’s novel which was meant to open today 25th, April 2014 has been postponed. Here’s an official statement from Shareman Media and FilmOne Distribution; the Nigerian producers, and distributors of the film.
“The highly anticipated release of Half of a Yellow Sun in Nigeria has been postponed due to delays in obtaining certification from the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board for the public release of the film.  Subject to obtaining the certification of the Board, the film is now rescheduled for release on 2nd May 2014.”

Review of Half Of A Yellow Sun movie | By: Akin Akintayo

A history missing
 
I was born just before the first military coup in the fledgling Federal Republic of Nigeria, far away from the madding cacophony and chaos that presaged the breakdown of order, the massacre of Igbos in the North and the civil war. We returned to Nigeria, in the year the civil war ended, my parents excited and ready to participate in the new Nigeria led by the military leader Yakubu Gowon, whose surname became the reconciliatory acronym of Go On With One Nigeria. The history of Nigeria that I did in school ended just after Nigerian independence and took off again after the end of the Civil War. It meant we as Yorubas from the South-West of Nigeria could choose wherever we wanted to live in the country, as we first set up base in Kaduna and then in Jos. The stories that informed the reasons for the turmoil in the Western Region, the corruption and misgovernment that led to the first and second military coups of 1966 and the swagger of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu were just the subject of folklore.
 
Making history obvious
 
The closest I came to appreciating what happened in the Civil War was in the photographs taken by Peter Obe, in a book titled, Nigeria: A Decade of Crises in Pictures (Paperback) which contained iconic and haunting photographs of the Republic of Biafra during the Civil War.
Enter, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a novel that apparently wove the realities of Biafra into a human interest story of everyday lives and how people were affected by the war. I never read the book, but I have just returned from watching the Half of a Yellow Sun film showing in just one cinema theatre in Manchester. Having read and watched reviews of the film, it had somewhat prepared me for possible disappointment, but there was a compelling need to see for myself.
 
Half of a fading sun
The film was well made, the acting superb and worthy of great accolades, but I am not sure if what is said of the novel did translate properly to the screenplay that became the template for the film. I cannot say that I learnt anything I did not already know of the Republic of Biafra apart from the visual representation of the geographical landmass that constituted Biafra. The flag of Biafra, composed of a horizontal tricolour with the yellow glow of a rising sun was as optimistic as the braggadocio of the man that led the secession from Nigeria, but one can safely say the sun had already set on Biafra from the get-go.
 
A warped history
Whether much could have been done to have the original coups more encompassing that it did not seem like an Igbo coup in a futile power grab can be the subject of extensive debate, but the birth of Nigeria as an independent country was as flawed and fractured as it could ever be. There probably was never a golden dawn of Nigeria beyond the speech that the Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa gave on the night we gained independence on the 1st of October, 1960.
 
A privileged view of the war
However, back to the film, the narratives were unusual and somewhat foreign in my view, as it revolved around two highly educated daughters and their love and family lives. Thandie Newton playing Olanna with her love interest Odenigbo played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and her sister Anika Noni Rose as Kainene with her American husband Joseph Mawle as Richard. I did not recognise the songstress Onyeka Onwenu for her part as Odenigbo’s mother; times do mature the visage of those one once knew so well, decades ago. Since, I am not a Nollywood fan, the other actors were just actors. Half of a Yellow Sun in the movie was the Biafran War from the perspective of the very privileged and well-connected in the early 1960’s.
 
An unfamiliar Nigeria
 
Throw in infidelity, a love child, an adoption, an interracial marriage and the luxury of being able to pack a bag and drive off in a car when trouble came close, and this became a very different Nigeria from that of those who did see suffering. The violence and tragedies in the film cannot be said to have done justice to bringing life to a history very few Nigerians born after 1970 know anything about. Yet, there were two characters that found opportunity by being in privileged surroundings, Ugwu the houseboy who witnessed much, said little and had the benevolence of being sent back to school where at the end of the film we are told became a writer and Baby, the love child who was accepted by Olanna as her daughter and eventually became a medical doctor.
 
Just a good film
 
I do not know if the film was to spare us the gruesomeness of the war or it was more intent on the love soap opera at the expense of the war. Yet, the mind of Odenigbo was interesting enough about his revolutionary zeal and his fearful view of Nigerian identity as was the capitalist machinations of Kainene as a profiteer in the war, who in one of her runs went missing and was never seen again. A good film in general, but not one to do Nigerian history at a leisurely pace with sweet popcorn and Pepsi Cola.

Photos from the UK premiere of Half of a Yellow Sun movie

The UK premiere of Biyi Bandele-directed movie, Half of a Yellow Sun movie, was held yesterday tuesday 8th April 2014 at the Odeon Cinema, Streatham Hill, London, UK. In attendance were; Chimamanda Adichie; the writer of the award-winning novel, Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The Nigeria premiere will take place this month.

Half of a Yellow Sun movie premieres in Lagos next month.

The wait is finally over. After two successful premieres at the at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013 and the British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival last October, highly anticipated film and adaptation of award-winning writer, Chimamanda’s first novel, Half of a Yellow Sun is finally storming Nigeria.
The movie which will premiere in Lagos on Friday, April 25, 2014 was directed by Biyi Bandele. It tells the story of four people during the struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Genevieve Nnaji, Zack Orji, OC Ukeje, Onyeka Onwenu to mention a few.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

The name Chiwetel Ejiofor might not easily ring a bell but as far as acting is concerned, the British-Nigerian actor is a force to reckon with, this is evident in the type of films he features in, nominations and prestigious awards on his shelf. Recently, he played the role of Odenigbo in writer, Chimamanda’s book turned movie, ‘Half Of a Yellow Sun.’ After losing out to Matthew Mcconaughey at the just-concluded 2014 Golden Globes awards, the prolific thespian has landed another huge nomination.

For his exceptionally brilliant performance in the movie, ’12 years a slave’, he has been shortlisted in the Best Actor category of this year’s Oscars. The ‘Dirty Pretty things’ star was nominated alongside Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo Dicaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Matthew Mcconaughey (Dallas Buyers Club).

FACES AT THE LONDON PREMIERE OF HALF OF A YELLOW SUN MOVIE

We had more faces (cast&crew) at the Toronto premiere (Toronto International Film Festival) which took place last month. However, the star-studded film as scheduled, has also premiered in London. And faces at the event include Chimamanda Adichie (the brain behind the book), Onyeka Onwenu, Biyi Bandele, Yewande Sadiku, Dele Momodu, OC Ukeje and many more. And Yes, Don Jazzy, it was really a surprise. Now looking forward to the Nigeria premiere.
Half of a Yellow Sun movie trailer:
Half of a Yellow Sun movie premiere (Toronto)
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