Clarissa
Viewer Advice: Contains suicide themes
Sophie Okonedo is sublime as a contemporary Nigerian Mrs. Dalloway in a star-stacked drama that deftly revitalises Virginia Woolf’s themes of memory and regret.
As elegant Lagos society wife Clarissa (Sophie Okonedo, Mouse, MIFF 2026) prepares to host an opulent party, she remembers one golden summer with the friends of her youth: aspiring writer Peter (Toheeb Jimoh, Ted Lasso), outspoken Sally (Ayo Edebiri, Theater Camp, MIFF 2023; The Bear) and cheerful Ugo. Why didn’t she marry the passionate Peter, or explore her attraction to Sally? When Clarissa unexpectedly runs into the now-dispirited expat Peter (David Oyelowo, Selma), she invites him to the party, where the quartet reunite and reckon with their past choices – choices that were, in their own way, also privileges.
Boldly following their debut Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) (MIFF 2021) – whose star Fortune Nwafor plays Septimus, Clarissa’s tormented working-class counterpoint – twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri transform Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway into a potent meditation on Nigerian class and colonialism. Here, as in the book, the eponymous character sets out to buy herself flowers; casting Nina Gold deserves plenty of her own for assembling this gifted ensemble of British/US/Nigerian talent, including luminous India Amarteifio (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story) as the young Clarissa.
“A film with a tender, sensual visual language that also boasts some heady ideas about the ripple effect of colonialism … There’s a coherence to Clarissa that’s breathtaking.” – RogerEbert.com
Tickets
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