Poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, film-maker, documentary photographer – many labels might attach to Biyi Bandele, who has died unexpectedly aged 54.
His directorial feature film debut, Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), based on the 2006 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was shot in Nigeria, produced by Andrea Calderwood and starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton. Seven years in the making, it required Biyi to confront unforeseen battles; among many challenges, members of the cast and crew were afflicted by typhoid and malaria during the shoot. It was no mean achievement that the film went on to critical and commercial success.
