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Bandele Biyi , director. Half of a Yellow Sun . 2013. 111 minutes. English, with French, Igbo, and Hausa. Nigeria/U.K. Monterey Media. $26.99.
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Adapted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's award-winning novel of the same name, Half of a Yellow Sun chronicles the experiences of a large group of characters in Nigeria, including Kainene and Olanna, who are cosmopolitan twins; Olanna's lover, Odenigbo, who is a radical academic; Odenigbo's devoted houseboy, Ugwu; and Kainene's lover, Richard, a British writer. We follow them from the days of Nigeria's independence euphoria to the political turmoil that triggered the succession of Biafra, civil war, and sweeping brutality. The level of turmoil in the characters' personal lives matches the chaos in the political realm. Odenigbo sleeps with Amala, his mother's maid; Olanna seduces Richard; Amala delivers an infant, Chiamaka, but then rejects her; Odenigbo's mother dies; Kainene disappears. Fifty years later Odenigbo and Olanna are happily married; Richard has settled in the country; Ugwu has become a writer; Chiamaka, who was raised by Olanna, has become a doctor; and Kainene is "still missing."
For the sake of narrative coherence, the book's plot was streamlined in its adaptation to film, and Bandele, notwithstanding the intrinsic interpretive license granted to a director, has faced charges of compromising the film's source...