Film director and writer, Biyi Bandele is dead
Bandele, famous for his directing of the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s classic novel Half Of A Yellow Sun, was aged 54.
Film director and writer, Biyi Bandele
His death was announced via a statement signed by his daughter, Temi Bandele.
Bandele, famous for his directing of the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s classic novel Half Of A Yellow Sun, is said to have died on Sunday.
The cause of his death is not yet clear.
He was 54 years old.
“I am heartbroken to share the sudden and unexpected death on Sunday 7th of August in Lagos of my father Biyi Bandele,” the statement announcing his death said.
“Biyi was a prodigiously talented writer and filmmaker, as well as a loyal friend and beloved father. He was a storyteller to his bones, with an unblinking perspective, singular voice, and wisdom which spoke boldly through all of his art, in poetry, novels, plays, and on screen. He told stories that made a profound impact and inspired many all over the world. His legacy will live on through his work.
“He was taken from us much too soon. He had already said so much so beautifully, and had so much more to say.
“We ask everyone to please respect the privacy of his family and friends as we grieve his loss.”
Source: Franktalknow
Biography
Bandele was born to Yoruba parents in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria, in 1967. His father Solomon Bandele-Thomas was a veteran of the Burma Campaign in World War II, while Nigeria was still part of the British Empire. In a 2013 interview with This Day, Bandele said of his ambitions to become a writer: "When I was a child, I remembered war was something that sprang up a lot in conversations on the part of my dad. ... That was probably one of the things that turned me into a writer." When he was 14 years old he won a short-story competition.
Bandele spent the first 18 years of his life in the north-central part of the country, later moving to Lagos, then in 1987 he studied drama at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He won the International Student Playscript competition of 1989 with an unpublished play, Rain, before claiming the 1990 British Council Lagos Award for a collection of poems.
He moved to London in 1990, at the age of 22, armed with the manuscripts of two novels. His books were published, and he was given a commission by the Royal Court Theatre.
He has written several plays, and worked with the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as writing radio drama and screenplays for television. He was Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge from 2000-2002, and Royal Literary Fund Resident Playwright at the Bush Theatre from 2002-2003.
His plays are: Rain; Marching for Fausa (1993); Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought (1994); Two Horsemen (1994), selected as Best New Play at the 1994 London New Plays Festival; Death Catches the Hunter and Me and the Boys (published in one volume, 1995). Brixton Stories, his stage adaptation of his own novel The Street (1999), premiered in 2001, and was published in one volume with his play, Happy Birthday Mister Deka, which premiered in 1999.
Biyi Bandele has also written five novels: The Man Who Came In From the Back of Beyond (1991); The Sympathetic Undertaker and Other Dreams (1991); The Street (1999); Burma Boy (2007): and The King's Rifle (2009).
In 1997 he adapted Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart for the stage, and in 1999 wrote a new adaptation of Aphra Benn’s Oroonoko, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His works:
Burma Boy
2001
Brixton Stories/Happy Birthday, Mister Deka
1999
Aphra Benn's Oroonoko
1999
The Street
1995
Death Catches the Hunter/Me and the Boys
1994
Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought
1994
Two Horsemen
1993
Marching for Fausa
1991
The Sympathetic Undertaker: and Other Dreams
1991
The Man Who Came In From the Back of Beyond
Awards
2000
EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award) for Best Play
1998
Peggy Ramsay Award
1995
Wingate Scholarship Award
1994
London New Play Festival
1989
International Student Playscript Competition.
Source: British Council Literature