One of the most eagerly awaited films to come out of Africa in recent years, starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is hitting the big screen.
"Half of a Yellow Sun" recently premiered at Toronto's International Film Festival. The British-Nigerian production is about the Nigerian civil war -- the Biafran war -- that tore up the country between 1967 and 1970, and is an adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's bestselling novel of the same name.
"It is essentially a love story set in the war," the film's Nigerian-born director Biyi Bandele told CNN.
The romantic drama spans over a decade, starting with Nigeria's newly found freedom from the British rule in 1960, and continuing until the end of the fighting. It follows the fate of four people who become entangled in both their relationships and the civil war. It focuses on two wealthy sisters, Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose), who, upon returning from their UK education, choose two completely different lives.
"Half of a Yellow Sun" -- said to be the most expensive Nigerian movie to date, with a reported budget of $8 million -- is a milestone in Nigerian film. Nigeria is the second-largest producer of films in the world, after India, with around 50 movies per week.
I can't wait to watch the movie as I've been too lazy to read the book.
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