Sophie Okonedo delivers a mesmerising performance in Clarissa, a new film from Nigerian directors Arie and Chuko Esiri that reimagines Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway in contemporary Lagos and rural Nigeria. The drama, which premiered at the Cannes film festival, explores themes of regret, memory and young love with a seductive, languorous tone.
Okonedo plays Clarissa, an elegant middle-aged woman preparing a party where she will reunite with old friends, including Peter (David Oyelowo), a failed writer, and Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird). Flashbacks set 30 years earlier in Abraka show young Clarissa (India Amarteifio) torn between her passion for Peter (Toheeb Jimoh) and her attraction to the charismatic Sally (Ayo Edebiri).
The film also follows Septimus (Fortune Nwafor), a soldier suffering from PTSD after fighting Boko Haram, whose wife works as Clarissa’s seamstress. His story parallels Clarissa’s own struggles with life choices and the weight of the past.
With a great musical score and commanding performances from a cast including Jude Akuwudike and Joke Silva, Clarissa offers a smooth, unselfconscious narrative that switches between past and present. The title’s removal of the patriarchal surname reflects a central tension in the story, as Clarissa grapples with her marriage to a Shell employee and the disillusionments of adulthood.
