I have consumed nearly all of Ms Adichie. While I was 'Literature in English' subject teacher in 2012, 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'Half of A Yellow Sun' were in the prescribed literary texts list. Thus, in 2012, my students and I ate Half of A Yellow Sun, even every word and punctuation. Fast forward to 2014 when we geared for the Nigerian release of the movie adaptation, hopes were dashed however when the movie received a tentative ban from the government who feared that it (Half of A Yellow Sun Movie) might incite violence and start a second civil war. "Ok, this movie must be the s**t" but no it wasn't.You can only only imagine how weak and watery the movie script was. But wait, you don't need to imagine, the movie shows it all. I tortured my brain to see the movie 'til the end, and that was because I had read the book. What about people who hadn't read that fine novel? They were served trash. I know a film adaptation cannot do justice to a book of almost 500 pages but Biyi Bandele could have avoided the pitfalls. I'm sure he was awestruck by the novel that he felt he owed CNA a duty to copy and paste everything from the novel into the film ( but he should have been warned). Better still he should have used a 'based upon' approach rather than this verbatim adaptation, and we still would be OK.Getting to the nucleus of what a book is truly about is the cue to an adaptation. I'm not sure Biyi knew that. Maybe now he knows that some scenes were not needed in the movie. However, thank God I read the book.

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.

Half a Yellow Sun is an adaptation of a novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The film is a love story that follows twin sisters who are caught up in the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s.Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) have returned to Nigeria after an education in England, they live a well to do life in Nigeria and mix with important people.Olanna moves in with her lover, a revolutionary lecturer Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his houseboy Ugwu (John Boyega). It is a complex relationship, his mother dislikes her and wants her son to to marry someone else. She even engineers him to get drunk and have sex with her servant woman which leaves her pregnant.Kainene takes over the family interests and pursues a career in commerce and falls in love with a white British writer, Richard (Joseph Mawle.)Their lives are intertwined with the Igbo peoples struggle to establish the independent country of Biafra and the brutal civil war that followed. Olanna struggles hardship, with no money or even a house to live in, moving from place to place and escaping the bombs. Kainene thrives dealing in the black market.The story comes across like a soap opera, at one point Olanna sleeps with Richard as an act of revenge. The plot also confuses you if you are not familiar with the history of the region. Some of the writing is a bit languid but the actors deliver heartfelt performances although it is a choppy melodrama.

Unlike some of my friends, I had not read the book prior to seeing the movie. In a Facebook discussion, Half of a Yellow Sun got excellent reviews on both the book and the movie, so I decided to check the movie out. I deeply appreciated seeing a movie with an emotional bond between two sisters who were connected in so many ways, but disconnected by romance and political views. Perhaps more intriguing were the circumstances that tore them apart, brought them together again. The movie actors were superb and each character was perfectly cast for their roles. I only wish movies like this would reach more people. It tells a story that is and was real about power, war and political unrest in Africa. I plan on reading the book as well.