Clarissa in Lagos: Woolf Reimagined by the Esiris at Cannes
Clarissa relocates Mrs. Dalloway to present‑day Lagos in the Esiri brothers’ Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry, led by Sophie Okonedo’s restrained, steel‑eyed Clarissa and Fortune Nwafor’s Septimus. The Nigerian take weaves memory, democracy debates, and class into a Lagosian panorama, with 35mm cinematography and a spectral score shaping a quiet, radical reinterpretation that eschews Woolf’s colonial frame. Neon has acquired U.S. rights, and the film is hailed as a subtle revelation that refines and revises the source material for a new era.