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Film: Half Of The Yellow Sun (15)

This Nigerian love story is pleasant enough but does not match the intensity of the novel, says RITA DI SANTO

Half Of The Yellow Sun (15)

Directed by Biyi Bandele

3 stars

BIYI BANDELE’S debut is an epic love story set in Nigeria in the late 1960s as civil war looms.

Based on Ngozi Adichie’s highly acclaimed novel, it tells the story of twin sisters Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) who live a middle-class urban life in the newly independent nation.

Beautiful and emancipated, the two sisters soon find the love of their lives — Olanna with university professor Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Kainene with English journalist Richard.

As chaos engulfs them, they are thrown together and then torn apart.

Intermittently entertaining, the film fails to match the intensity of the novel.

While it delivers an intriguing slant on the period it never completely comes to grips with it and ultimately it washes pleasantly enough over one’s head.

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