Half of A Yellow Sun Film Poster

Release Date:  09/08/2013

Links: https://youtu.be/bq9jI1QnEXU?si=gOPtrxG299p1jZ9e

This image is the official film poster for the movie adaptation of the book “Half of a yellow sun” Authored by one of Nigeria’s progressive and proudly feminist authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The book was published in 2006.

The art and design for this film poster was supervised by Steve Summersgill and directed by the Nigerian art director Pat Nebo.

This highly nominated film was released in 2013 and though only almost a decade ago, this was still considered early years in the Nigerian film making industry now known internationally as Nollywood. This film uses the Nigerian civil war as the background, and it occurred between 1967 and 1970. The discord comes from the differences in religion and socio-political culture between the Igbo ethnic group and Muslim Hausa-Fulanis.

This film takes place in the country Nigeria prior to and during the Nigerian civil war (1967–70). The effect of the war is shown through the relationships of five people's lives including the twin daughters of an influential businessman, a professor, a British expat, and a Nigerian houseboy. After Biafra's declaration of secession, the lives of the main characters drastically change and are torn apart by the brutality of the civil war and decisions in their personal lives.

The Nigerian film making industry or Nollywood as they are now called, employs the use of photographic images as opposed to illustration, to appeal to a broader audience. More specifically, the designers use the photos of famous well known cast members as a tool to entice the intended audience as these actors are easily recognizable. Though considered a brilliant marketing strategy, this didn’t leave room for much creativity at the time, as the photographs would have to be big and bold to be recognizable and doesn’t allow room for the creation of context. In some cases, designers would then give a summary in text or sometime leave easter eggs that sometimes if designed properly or interpreted properly would tell the story.

On this poster we can see images of two sets of couples, which depicts an impending.

Romance but what it also shows, is an image of an injured man being carried by two people which could deduce a potential tragedy. There’s also an image of fire but that can easily go unnoticed due to the yellow hue of the fire being almost Identical to the yellow hue of the image of the sun right next to it. These may seem like design flaws today but at this time the objective was selling the actors not so much the story on the film posters as we can see how the pictures of the actors are very prominent. Due to technological advancements at this time photography had become widely accepted and designers would only need to create one official film poster that would be advertised in the movie theaters as well as go on DVDs and VCDs.

This movie took me through a rollercoaster of emotions and is one of my favorite movies of all time. I would highly recommend watching it!