The film, Half of a Yellow Sun, by the time table of the producers, should have been in Nigerian cinemas by now. In fact, the template for releasing the film is brand new and was supposed to become the standard for distributing films in Nigerian cinemas. That is not going to happen just yet. Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, examines the circumstances that led to this…
A scene from Half of a Yellow Sun
The well-publicised release date for the movie, Half of a Yellow Sun, based on a novel of the same title by Chimamanda Adichie and directed by Biyi Bandele, was April 25. This, those behind the movie, made known at a briefing after the press screening on April 11. That date was later moved to May 2. But even on that day, the sun set without the Half of a Yellow Sun opening at any cinema in the country.
What happened on that day is that Shareman Media, the Nigerian producers, and FilmOne Distribution, the Nigerian distributors, of the feature film, said: “The public release of Half of a Yellow Sun in Nigeria remains postponed due to the fact that the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has not yet certified the film.”
The statement further explained that the release date would be announced once the board certifies the film for release to the public.
The NFVCB approved 43 movies for public viewing only last week, but Half of a Yellow Sun was, again, left out.
When TheNiche approached the Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of the NFVCB, Caesar Kagho, he simply said: “Half of a Yellow Sun is still undergoing due process, and when the process is complete, it will be released.”
Pressed to speak further, he told our reporter to wait for the statement the NFVCB will send out in June.
But veteran filmmaker, Eddie Ugbomah, told TheNiche that there is likelihood that Half of a Yellow Sun, which was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) late last year, may never see a cinema hall in the country.
“What happened to that film was simple arrogance. When the director of censors’ board saw the film in Canada, she told them that part of this film is very exciting, and that it is a bad memory, in bad taste; so they should expunge it. But they ignored her,” he said.
Ugbomah stated further that when the filmmakers came to Nigeria without getting censorship and clearance, they went ahead to print posters and began publicity.
“The law says they should get posters; they printed about nine different posters with no classification. They went ahead and premiered the film. They shouldn’t have premiered it at all.
“So they went to the censors’ board after the film had become hot, and without waiting for the certificate of clearance, they went straight to put it on,” Ugbomah, said.
According to him, the controversial footage in the film is not more than 10 minutes.
In a passionate article published on CNN.com, the film’s director wondered why Nigerians still can’t watch the country’s biggest film.
He said in the article that when he heard that the board would be unable to issue certification to Half of a Yellow Sun in time for the film’s release date, he naturally assumed, at first, that what they were faced with “was nothing more sinister than another instance of the typical, if frustrating, culture of wilful incompetence that we’d grappled with while shooting the film in Nigeria two years ago”.
He recalled that there were times when we felt ensnared in impenetrable jungles of red tape, when they would be given the go-head by one arm of government, only to find their path blocked by another arm.
“I had no reason to assume, for instance, that the inability of the board to issue the film with a certificate might actually be a clumsy, heavy-handed ban in all, but name. After all, when the movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn, among Nigerians who flew into Toronto for the occasion was Patricia Bala, director-general of the Nigerian censorship board,” he wrote.
“Bala was gracious enough to tell us after the screening how much she loved the movie. At no point did she express any reservations about the contents of the film.”
Bandele explained that Half of a Yellow Sun only turned Nigeria’s civil war into fiction, and it is now nearly eight months since the censors board first saw the movie in Toronto.
He lamented that he has been assailed on Twitter, Facebook, and by email with rumours, innuendos, half-truths, and downright lies, saying that the film was submitted to the censorship board at least two weeks earlier than April 25 and concluded that whether or not the film eventually gets a ratings certificate in Nigeria, it will be seen by millions of Nigerians.