The Nigerian drama “HALF OF A YELLOW SUN” starring BAFTA award winner Thandie Newton (Mission: Impossible II, The Pursuit of Happyness, Crash) and three-time Golden Globe nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, American Gangster, Salt), has been selected as the opening film of the 2013 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), which takes place September 17th – October 1st.

“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.

Set in 1960s Nigeria, the story brings audiences into a country torn apart by civil war and shows how the interwoven lives of four central characters intersect during a struggle to establish an independent republic of Nigeria.

The film features an impressive supporting cast that 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” – the moniker bestowed on Nigeria’s booming film industry that produces over 2,000 movies a year and has become the third most valuable movie industry in the world behind only Hollywood and Bollywood. “Half of a Yellow Sun” is the country’s most ambitious and most expensive film to date, with a budget of N1.27 billion (approximately. $8 million).