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 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.

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.