{"id":601747,"date":"2026-05-24T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601747\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T17:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:51:21","slug":"how-the-esiri-brothers-sophie-okonedo-put-clarissa-in-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601747\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Esiri Brothers & Sophie Okonedo Put \u2018Clarissa\u2019 In Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri<\/a> decided to adapt Virginia Woolf\u2019s 1925 novel\u00a0Mrs. Dalloway\u00a0and give it the title of\u00a0Clarissa<\/a>, her Christian\u00a0name, they say they were \u201cfreeing her\u201d from being someone\u2019s property, someone\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s as if the character has been freed from the shackles and allowed to be herself.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the idea, for her to be a person more than Richard\u2019s wife,\u201d says Chuko,\u00a0referring to the name of her husband.<\/p>\n

\n\tSophie Okonedo<\/a> plays\u00a0Clarissa\u00a0as a contemporary woman in present-day Lagos, Nigeria, and she seems more independent than how she\u2019s characterized in the novel which is set in the years following the end of World War I.<\/p>\n

\n\tChuko notes that Nigerian households are a\u00a0\u201cdeeply patriarchal society, and it falls on the women of the house. They run the house and there\u2019s a great history of Nigerian women being the ones that move things forward\u2026 I think a lot of that is having grown up in a house and houses and seen our aunties and our\u00a0mothers, like they run everything,\u201d Chuko\u00a0says as I collapse laughing because I know this to be one hundred percent fact.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film played like gangbusters in Directors\u2019 Fortnight. Neon was all over it long before it was announced for Cannes.<\/p>\n

\n\tMrs. Dalloway\u00a0became Chuko\u2019s favorite novel when he was aged 16 or 17.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a novel I love. I was at school, but it was not for school. Our mum\u2019s a voracious reader and\u00a0really instilled reading. Every home we lived in, there would be a room, and it would be where her book collection is, and that continues to grow and grow and grow. I think maybe, we were doing modernist literature. I think we were reading Katherine Mansfield short stories at the time and I love those. And naturally it\u2019s like, well, I want to read more of this sort of thing and found my way to Virginia Woolf and into Mrs. Dalloway. And what I always say is that, at 17, I didn\u2019t understand it, but I felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it he felt? \u201cThe writing is so beautiful and the emotions are so strong, and in your late teens, your emotions are naturally already very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0Chuko came back to the book\u00a0when he was in his mid 20s and he had a \u201cgreat love for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe last time he read the novel for leisure was eight years ago, in his early 30s, at a time when he was on track to becoming a filmmaker, \u201cand you\u2019re also at this quarter-life crisis place and also coming out of film school as well. It\u2019s like, well, there\u2019s no more school to hide in. So I guess I have to make life work. And then you start thinking about, did I make the right choice? Should I have done this? And growing up in a Nigerian household, it\u2019s doctor, lawyer, architect, and our friends are doctors, lawyers, architects and finance guys. There\u2019s my friend buying his first house, and it\u2019s like, I\u2019m still living at home with mum. Life feels like a sitcom. It\u2019s like 33-year-old living at home with his mother and hasn\u2019t really got gainful employment. So, all these things are happening. And then reading the book, not that the book is about that, but it then just became much clearer. I was like, \u2018Oh, there are pieces of me in these characters,’\u201d Chuko says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe brothers were now of an age where, as Chuko notes, \u201cyou start speaking more to your uncles and aunties and your parents.\u00a0And Nigeria being a very unofficial gerontocracy, the elders are not to be disturbed, and they don\u2019t share their lives. But at that age, they feel a bit freer with sharing their life with you, and in the book it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, this is some of the stuff my uncles and aunties went through.\u2019 And it just became really, really, clear at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI turn to Arie, the other brother, and ask when he first became aware of\u00a0Woolf\u2019s novel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sophie<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSophie Okoneno in \u2018Clarissa\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNEON<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHonestly,\u201d he responds chuckling,\u00a0\u201cwhen Chuko decided that this was going to be the next film that we\u2019re going to make\u2014Virginia Woolf was on his Mount Rushmore of authors. The desk that he writes at is called Virginia. Virginia\u2019s engraved on the side of it. So I could see it coming. So for me, honestly, it was when he said, \u2018Look, I\u2019m thinking of adapting this and making this our next film.\u2019 Then I started considering her work, and well, mainly obviously Mrs. Dalloway, and I fell in love with the very prose-y visual\u00a0aspects of the book, and one of the things I said to him was like, \u2018This is going to be very difficult to do.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom \u201cday one,\u201d their instinct, says Arie, was\u00a0to extrapolate the tale and set it in contemporary\u00a0Lagos.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe reasons that \u201cwe talk about classic Russian literature feeling like the world in which that takes place, feeling like modern day Nigeria with the way our society functions and still functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChuko goes on to suggest that Nigerian society is \u201cvery conservative\u201d and that \u201cthe family sort of runs as a mini government,\u201d a comment that elicits guffaws. \u201cThere\u2019s a council of elders that are, I don\u2019t know, the House of Lords,\u201d while \u201ccousins or the next generation above\u201d are the members of parliament. \u201cIt really does feel like a period drama. Well, one of the things we said when we started working and speaking to people is, \u2018I don\u2019t know why in the UK in particular, they don\u2019t have more African directors making period pieces because it\u2019s just like, wait, we know this.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was something about this novel that was very contemporary, even being a hundred years old as of last year, and that was really appealing,\u201d Chuko adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile setting it in a modern day Nigeria\u2014although there are story strands set in the past\u2014they\u2019ve also been able to\u00a0incorporate aspects of the country\u2019s history and its colonial past.<\/p>\n

\n\tApproaches were made to Sophie Okonedo, and it helped that Jude Akuwudike, who\u2019d worked with them on their 2020 film This is My Desire, knew Okonedo from their time studying\u00a0at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u00a0coincidence was a welcome surprise for Okonedo.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSophie Okonedo (Baz Bamigboye\/Deadline)<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, says Chuko, \u201cThe idea of Jude being of Nigerian heritage and working in the UK all his life in her orbits, seeing him transpose his talents to his ancestral roots and\u00a0imbibing by being this character in such an organic way\u00a0was something that appealed to her. I think for her it was just like, \u2018Oh, I would love to go on that same kind of journey,\u2019 not just for artistic reasons, but very personal ones. The idea of doing something\u00a0just spoke to her personally, but she didn\u2019t know at that point we were adapting\u00a0Mrs. Dalloway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo expressed as much to me when we first spoke about\u00a0Clarissa.\u00a0So keen was she, that even when the project was on the verge of collapse\u2014more than once\u2014she willed it to survive.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat energy persisted throughout,\u201d Arie\u00a0says, smiling.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trickiest part of the adaptation,\u00a0says\u00a0Chuko, was letting go of the book, and that didn\u2019t happen until Theresa Park, who\u2019s the lead producer, came on board and was the first person to read a presentable iteration of the draft \u201cand came back with a set of notes and she was really like, \u2018You can let go of the book now.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat gave them\u00a0permission to jettison a lot from those early drafts, which allowed Chuko a firmer understanding that \u201cI was writing a Nigerian Mrs. Dalloway. So, they share things, they share pasts, similar pasts, they share their society with the desire to throw a lovely party, and they\u2019re very particular about the party and who comes and who doesn\u2019t come. But she\u2019s Nigerian so she\u2019s inherently different,\u201d Chuko suggests.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe surmises that\u00a0Mrs. Dalloway\u00a0from the novel and\u00a0Clarissa\u00a0in the film are cousins, really. \u201cThere were moments when I would have lines lifted out of the book in some of the characters\u2019 mouths, and it didn\u2019t feel right because I\u2019m like, \u2018I can\u2019t imagine this person saying this,’\u201d Chuko explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo, that\u2019s the first change that happens ,and then it\u2019s like, leave the book behind, and so,\u00a0\u00a0 left it behind completely, and then it morphs into something else. And yeah, I think that the ambition with adaptation is to maintain the spirit. It\u2019s not supposed to be a certified copy. It needs to keep the spirit of the thing alive,\u201d Chuko adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, and that spirit also shines through in the sense of the class aspect. There\u2019s a moment\u00a0when a former general upbraids a footman for not wearing gloves to serve food. It goes without saying that I would never behave in such a manner, but I remember observing much grander relatives behaving like exiled rulers, which, actually, they were.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut, I asked the bothers if they had witnessed their own relatives or elders behaving in an imperialistic way?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI say that the thing about colonialism is everyone thinks of the physical occupation,\u201d Chuko argues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut then there\u2019s the mental occupation that happens alongside it, and with that is like, the general for example, his backstory, I imagine like all those guys did, they went to Sandhurst and they went to military school in England, and the military school is just a very feudal\u00a0place as well. And you do the officers course, and so, you see these things and you think that is what sophistication looks like. You\u2019re told that\u2019s what sophistication is. You\u2019re told this is how you behave\u2026 So, that thing takes generations to work your way through, and I think, like with most people that are converted, the convert is often more zealous than the actual person practicing it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we have at home, both in social mores and mannerisms and the actual religion of Christianity as well. There\u2019s more zeal. So yeah, not wearing gloves becomes a terribly big deal and it\u2019s like the world\u2019s collapsing, because if this is happening, then what does it say about me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMy Nigerian aunts used to visit when I was a kid. They were boss ladies. I have a memory of them, dressed up to the nines in regal robes and hair scarves, commandeering a rowing\u00a0boat at Richmond on Thames, demanding to be rowed across to the old ice rink on the other side. At the time, I wanted to run away and hide, but on reflection over half a century later,\u00a0I feel proud of them, that they dared insist that these white men take them to their destination. But there were grander relatives than them, which is probably why\u00a0Clarissa, the film, is so recognizable to me.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s always somebody above you, and there\u2019s always your elder, your auntie, your uncle, and it doesn\u2019t matter what age you are, you are always at their beck and call. You\u2019re conscripted at any moment, forget what you\u2019re doing, drop it, your auntie needs help setting up the TV. And it\u2019s like, well, okay, I guess I\u2019ve got to get in the car and go help us with the TV,\u201d Arie says as we all dissolve into fits of laughter.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Nigerian version of\u00a0Gosford Park\u00a0would be an absolute hoot.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe, all three of us, go on to chat about how we\u2019d have to throw ourselves to the ground and lay prostrate before our elders. But, let me tell you\u00a0that I have not\u00a0done\u00a0that for decades, nor do I expect younger Nigerians to do that for me. A polite nod is sufficient.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t go away,\u201d Arie\u00a0adds. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how old you are, age is everything in Nigeria, it stays with you from high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s why it was important to cast veteran Nigerian actors with stature in the industry for some of the grander senior roles.<\/p>\n

\n\tTalking of casting, how did they manage to contract Nina Gold to cast the picture?<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir reps suggested they approach Gold, one of the world\u2019s leading casting directors \u2013 this was way before she landed the latest James Bond movie.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were like, she wouldn\u2019t do something like this, this really tiny film,\u201d\u00a0Chuko says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were incredulous when \u201cshe took to it immediately and was so incredible to work with and was so committed, and on one of the calls, Arie sheepishly asked whether she would come to Lagos to do it because\u00a0we assumed she\u2019s going to send an associate to Lagos. She was like, \u2018Oh no, I\u2019m coming. I\u2019ll be there.\u2019 And she was true to her word,\u201d Chuko states.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkonedo was already\u00a0loosely attached. Soon after Gold signed on, she went about ensuring that each character matched with their younger or older selves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor instance, Gold chose India Amarteifo (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story) as the young Clarissa and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso) as her lover Peter. David Oyelowo plays older Peter.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIndia Amarteifio, Toheeb Jimoh, Sophie Okonedo and David Oyelowo at Deadline Studio at Cannes Film Festival 2026 on May 17, 2026 in Cannes, France.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother big challenge was the decision to shoot on film. Chuko says that they love shooting on film. When he was studying at Columbia, he visited Kodak at their lab in Long Island and\u00a0asked them to help him out. They gave him \u201ca whole bunch of\u00a060 millimetre cans that came from The Walking Dead, that they didn\u2019t want, but which I was very happy to take, and it was just very hard to go back. The images just really come to life on film in a way that they don\u2019t digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral years later, they still shoot on film. The results for\u00a0Clarissa, which was shot by Jonathan Bloom, are stunning.<\/p>\n

\n\tArie notes that he loves the practice of working on film and the idea \u201cthat none of us can see the image immediately. It just brings a certain amount of focus to set that\u2019s just wonderful. I think everybody is clued in that every minute is precious and that really informs this type of classical type of filmmaking that we were trying to do, so it really informed the visual language of film, not just the way it looks, but the way it was shot, the manner in which we achieved that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd because they were using expensive film stock, it felt vital to get the choreography of a scene right. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a limited amount of time or takes to do this thing and we\u2019ve all got to focus and be one and make it work,\u201d Arie adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, by Jove, it does work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri decided to adapt Virginia Woolf\u2019s 1925 novel\u00a0Mrs. Dalloway\u00a0and give it the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[203859,47636,205393,205394,203860,203861,96,2839,203863,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-arie-esiri","tag-breaking-baz","tag-cannes-2026-cannes-film-festival","tag-cannes-directors-fortnight","tag-chuko-esiri","tag-clarissa","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-sophie-okonedo","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}