Neon’s ‘Clarissa’ Receives Hearty Standing Ovation Following Cannes Premiere

Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa is one of the more intriguing titles this year at Cannes. When the film and its cast were announced earlier this year by Neon, which acquired world rights, the announcement went viral. And this evening in Cannes, the film received a hearty standing ovation following its debut screening in the Directors’ Fortnight competition. 

Shot on 35mm film in Nigeria, the film is a loose adaptation of  Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The story follows Clarissa, a high-society woman in the throes of preparing to host a party at her home in Lagos, where she will unexpectedly encounter once-intimate friends from her youth. 

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