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BUENOS AIRES — Nigerian drama Half of a Yellow Sun, starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor will open the eighth edition of the Trinidad and Tobago film festival, which takes place Sept.17-Oct. 1.
“We are proud that Half of a Yellow Sun will open the Festival. This continues our mandate to not only show films from the Caribbean and the diaspora but to also celebrate films made in Africa, one of our heritage countries,” said TTFF founder and director Bruce Paddington.
The film’s Caribbean showing will follow its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival a few weeks prior.
Half of a Yellow Sun is an adaptation of celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s best-selling novel of the same title, which won the Orange Broadbrand Prize for Fiction.
PHOTOS: Toronto 2013: The Films
Set in 1960s Nigeria, the story features the connected lives of four central characters during a struggle to establish an independent republic of Nigeria.
The film’s supporting cast includes Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls, The Princess and the Frog), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Joseph Mawle (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Awakening, Game of Thrones), Genevieve Nnaji and Nigerian singer and actress Onyeka Onwenu.
Directed by Biyi Bandele, Half of a Yellow Sun is a product of “Nollywood,” Nigeria’s booming film industry, which produces more than 2,000 movies per year and has become the third most valuable movie industry in the world behind Hollywood and Bollywood. Half of a Yellow Sun is the country’s most ambitious and expensive film to date, with a budget of N1.27 billion (approximately $8 million).
Produced by BAFTA award winner Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland) and Gail Ega (The Constant Gardner), the film is a British/Nigerian co-production and was shot at Tinapa Film Studio in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom.
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