Verified source report

Clarissa review – Sophie Okonedo mesmeric as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway decamps to Nigeria

Cannes film festival: Commanding performances and a great musical score underpin this seductive drama about regret, memory and young love Virginia Woolf seems to be having a moment in the movies. Soon, we will see Tina Gharavi’s new version of Woolf’s comic novel Night and Day; and now, Nigerian film-making brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri have brought to Cannes their interpretation of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, a seductively mysterious, languorous, melancholy drama with commanding performances and a great musical score. It is set partly in modern-day Lagos , whose ambient streetscapes are conjured up with style, and partly in the more bucolic Abraka in southern Nigeria, 30 years in the past. It is essentially a film about life-choices, about the terrible inevitability of marrying the wrong person and yearning to make sense of the past without regret. The film moves with an easier and more unsel

Vinita Duniphin Culture Source report

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, Clarissa review – Sophie Okonedo mesmeric as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway decamps to Nigeria, Cannes film festival: Commanding performances and a great musical score underpin this seductive drama about regret, memory and young love Virginia Woolf seems to be having a moment in the movies. Soon, we will see Tina Gharavi’s new version of Woolf’s comic novel Night and Day; and now, Nigerian film-making brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri have brought to Cannes their interpretation of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, a seductively mysterious, languorous, melancholy drama with commanding performances and a great musical score. It is set partly in modern-day Lagos , whose ambient streetscapes are conjured up with style, and partly in the more bucolic Abraka in southern Nigeria, 30 years in the past. It is essentially a film about life-choices, about the terrible inevitability of marrying the wrong person and yearning to make sense of the past without regret. The film moves with an easier and more unsel

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-16T11:45:08+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: Clarissa review – Sophie Okonedo mesmeric as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway decamps to Nigeria via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

This source-cited VINI report links to the original publisher record. VINI does not republish third-party article bodies without rights clearance. 1 source listed.

Source links

Clarissa review – Sophie Okonedo mesmeric as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway decamps to NigeriaThe Guardian - 2026-05-16T11:45:08+00:00

Reader comments

Moderated discussion

Account access

Comments are open to authenticated approved accounts, screened for spam and abuse, and published only after newsroom moderation unless editors change the story control.

Loading comments.