229) Half A Yellow Sun (2013)
Sisters Olanna and Kainene return home to 1960s Nigeria, where they soon diverge on different paths. As civil war breaks out, political events loom larger than their differences as they join the fight to establish an independent republic.
5/10 – An excellent cast, and a film based on an award winning book of the same name, but falls short as it tries to achieve far too much. It rushes about from pivotal moment to the next one, throwing love and cheating and death and war and bombs and food and casual chit chat all together at a speed associated with soap operas. The acting is great, if not a little over the top, but even with the fine performances it failed to make any form of connection with me.
It was a harrowing time in Nigeria, but a film focusing on the sociopolitical issues would have been far more engaging and might have actually highlighted that in more compelling detail.
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