Friday 27 June 2014

Durban International Film Festival to take cold look at "Half Of A Yellow Sun"



The film is directed by Biyi Bandele and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. 

 Half of a Yellow Sun, the film adaptation of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, will be screened at next month's Durban International Film Festival, despite it being "banned" in Nigeria.

The programme for the 35th edition of the film festival, was released yesterday [Wednesday].
A week ago, the National Film and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB) in that country, denied banning the film - it said that according to the law "a decision on a film shall ensure that such a film is not likely to undermine national security".
The distributor, according to the report, was asked to "expunge/edit some clearly stated objectionable aspects of the movie", before a rating of the film is released.


The film is directed by Biyi Bandele, and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. It tells the story of the Biafran War and life in Nigeria post-independence, through the perspective of twin sisters Olanna and Kainene. After studying abroad, they return to a Nigeria keen to shake of all colonial influence. But an act of betrayal cripples the sisters' relationship, and that fracture is soon mirrored by the outbreak of  a bloody civil war.

Last month, Adichie reacted to the film's censorship with a op-ed piece in The New Yorker, saying her people "cannot hide from our history".
"The censors' action is a knee-jerk political response, yet there is a sense in which it is not entirely unreasonable," she wrote. "Nigeria is on edge, with upcoming elections that will be fiercely contested, religion and ethnicity increasingly politicised, and Boko Haram committing mass murders and abducations. In a political culture already averse to openness, this might seem a particularly appropriate time for censorship".
Meanwhile, the film festival will run between July 18 and 28, screening 40 feature films and 38 short films.
Organisers picked Hard to Get, a debut feature by young director Zee Ntuli, as the opening night film. Pallance Dladla of Isibaya fame, stars as TK, a handsome young womaniser with trust issues who is thrust into Johannesburg's underworld when he falls for Skiets (Thishiwe Ziqubu), a beautiful but reckless young woman who earns her living as a petty criminal. But if TK is to win Skiets' heart, he will have to go through hell first. 


Source- The Times

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