Half of a Yellow Sun:NFVCB opens up on the movie
By BENJAMIN NJOKU
Until the producers of the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun are ready to do the needful, fans of the best selling novel may have to wait for a long time before thronging the cinemas to see the film in Nigeria.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is the position of the National Film and Video Censors Board,NFVCB. It is coming weeks after the promoters of the film, The Film One Distribution Limited, wrote a letter to the Director-General of NFVCB,Ms Patricia Bala, expressing dismay about “the delay in receiving a formal response from the Board on the status of our application or determination of same.”
The board, in a statement signed by Mr Caesar Kagho, Acting Head, and Corporate Affairs of NFVCB, in Abuja,maintained that the big-budget film will not get its approval for public release until certain aspects of the film that bother on ‘national security’ are expunged. It, however, reiterated that it did not ban the movie as widely speculated.
The Board insisted it had communicated the details of its decision to the promoters of The statement reads thus: “It has become necessary for the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) to clear the air and set the records straight on the status of the movie, Half of a Yellow Sun and the attendant interest in certain quarters on the matter.
The NFVCB restates its position that the movie is not banned as speculated and that the board has dutifully exercised due diligence consonant with section 36 (1) (b) of NFVCB Enabling Law ACT 1993, CAP N40 LFN 2004 which stipulates that “ a decision on a film shall ensure that such a film is not likely to undermine national security.”
The Board has duly communicated the exhibitor of the movie in a letter dated May 27th, 2014 explaining the status of the film and requiring the distributor to
