Anika Noni Rose. Chiwetel Ejiofor. Thandie
Newton. That’s all I had to see to decide to press play on Half of a Yellow
Sun. The film is a poetic and insightful nod to Nigeria, the 1960’s civil-war-torn
country in which this film takes place. Although it wasn’t always easy to
watch, this movie was definitely worth seeing.
The first half of the film seemed to simply be
a series of incidents. Yes, there was conflict, but it never seemed like the
action was moving toward any sort of climax. I liked that. I know that goes
against fundamental principles of drama, but I really appreciated the
simplicity. The plot was a steady undulation of, well, life. Terrible things did
happen in this film. Although those things beat upon the characters, they didn’t
stop the plot; a film centered on tragedy was not about tragedy. I think that
sometimes we like defining people and their lives by their circumstances. This
film forced you to look beyond what was happening to people so that you could
actually see people. Through those people we were able to experience love in an
unconventional way. I think that this idea is especially important in
discussing a film that takes place on the African continent. For so long,
society has tried to define Africans and people of color by negative
circumstances often a result of systems of white supremacy. The characters were
not just the effect of a tragic cause, but catalysts within their own
lives.
Love is something that most people want to see
on screen. It’s a magnetic fantasy that we all have had in some way or another.
Why else do super spies need romantic interests? Love is relatable. So when I
saw this film on Netflix I was so hype. I was expecting this movie to be
pleasantly corny. You know, girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, blah,
blah blah. Netflix described it as something to the effect of a love story
against the backdrop of war. I thought
that I could focus on the love part and let war be an afterthought. I could be
entertained like the thirteen-year-old girl that I secretly am while still
being down for the Pan-African cause. Half of a Yellow Sun didn’t let me off so
easily. It let me marvel at African intelligence, beauty, and culture while
making the characters extremely relatable while simultaneously forcing me to
confront hardship.
Half of a Yellow Sun didn’t give us love on a
silver Rom-Com platter. However it also didn’t present love in a way so obscure
that most people couldn’t understand. We do not see people falling in love,
just existing within it. The plot moved steadily along and then boom. War. But
war wasn’t the plot. Struggle wasn’t the plot. Love was the plot. And yet still
this film wasn’t really romantic. This film played on my girly tendencies—I was
looking for love to make me smiley and comfortable. Instead this movie used
love to create a way for me to better understand their struggle. I’ve never
experienced war, so I don’t think that it is my place to make a generalization
based on a film. However, within the context of this movie, love is bigger than
violence.
All in all, this film made me say “Yas”,
“Preach”, and “Wow.” I promise I have more exclamations in my vocabulary but
“yippee” didn’t really seem to fit. I say “Yas” because we saw Black
intelligentsia in action, “preach" because when life crumbles before our
eyes, there’s still hope even in the darkest situations, and “wow" because
even though I’ve never personally experienced war, it felt more close, scary,
and uncomfortable than I expected for a film. It built me up then tore me down.
I wouldn’t say that this film is perfect, but it did the work that it needed to
do. It defied stereotypes, fantasies, and twisted imaginations. The story was
captivating because I felt like I was moving with the characters through life
instead of viewing their story on a screen. Plus I really loved the costumes.
Half of a Yellow Sun is a simple yet rich love letter to Nigeria. To all
of my brothers and sisters for whom war is too familiar, I see you.
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