Half of a Yellow Sun

2013

Drama / Romance

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50% · 52 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 36% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 2272 2.3K

Director

Top cast

Wale Ojo as Chief Okonji
Thandie Newton as Olanna
Joseph Mawle as Richard
Susan Wokoma as Amala
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1023.43 MB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds ...
2.05 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by samabc-31952 6 / 10

Does not come together

1st Oct, 1960, Nigeria got its Independence from British and as it always, it came with a price. The partition, Republic of Biafra was formed .. a farewell present from Brits!!!! And that followed by a failed coup led by Major Nzeogwu.. then in 1966 Anti Igbo Pogom (Genocide) happened and some 10000a-30000 Igbos were killed in northern Nigeria. Later that decade, oil was found in Biafra.. and that triggered a civil war.. the story centers around this war. It is based on a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It Is somewhat in spate and comes short of showing the true horrors of those times...with run-of-the-mill performances, the movie does not come together as powerful or a whole. However, came to know about the dark chapters of Nigerian history. And also, learnt few things as in Nigeria, women are paid bride price - dowry and that Nigerians love wine - they always have both alcoholic and nonalcoholic wines!
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Reviewed by konpamusic 5 / 10

A novelist film

I watched this film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It is an Okay film for the first-time director Biyi Bandele - jumping straight to big budget film ($10M). Nevertheless,  it does not deserve the golden award for best feature film. ZIFF is promoting mediocrity. There were other local African films that deserve the award - as 'local' is one of ZIFF main criteria. ZIFF is a not-for- profit organization, and it functions no different than the big-name for-profit festivals. If you don't know what I am talking about - watch the documentary Official Rejection (2009).

Hollywood actors, big-name producers from Constant Gardener, and expensive special effects did not embellish the poor directing skills of Biyi Bandele. 

To be successful in his next film project, I advise Biyi to first divorce himself from his novelist style. 

Just as acting-for-play is different than acting-for-film; the same rule applies to writing a book vs a film script; directing a play vs directing a film.

Biyi does not yet understand the job of a director. There are certainly a LOT of specific directorial responsibilities that he needs to master to become a good director.

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