NEON, the award-winning studio behind some of the most daring and celebrated films of the last nine years, announced today it has acquired worldwide rights to twin filmmakers’ Arie and Chuko Esiri’s (Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)) latest feature, Clarissa. The film, which was shot on 35mm film in Lagos and Delta State, Nigeria, stars Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), David Oyelowo (Selma), India Amarteifio (“Queen Charlotte”), Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), and Toheeb Jimoh (“Ted Lasso”, “Industry”). NEON International will represent the film for foreign sales and NEON will release the film theatrically in the US.

In a modern reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s celebrated novel Mrs. Dalloway, society woman Clarissa (Okonedo) prepares to host a party at her home in Lagos, Nigeria, where she will unexpectedly encounter once-intimate friends from her youth. As the group reflects on their shared past over the course of a single night, memories of their intricate relationships, passionate love, hidden desires, and lost aspirations give rise to bittersweet reckoning.

The screenplay was written by Chuko Esiri and the film is jointly directed and produced by Arie and Chuko alongside producers Theresa Park for Per Capita Productions and Nicholas Weinstock for Invention Studios. Co-producers include Academy Award®–nominated Nina Gold and Thomas Bassett and executive producers include Sophie Okonedo, Dolly Omodolapo Kola-Balogun, Osahon Okunbo, and Jason Reif. Production financing for filming in Nigeria was provided entirely by Africa-based Afreximbank’s CANEX Creations Inc. (CANEX) and MBO Capital. The acquisition and distribution deal was negotiated by NEON’s Director of Acquisitions, Development & Production Kate Gondwe and UTA Independent Film Group on behalf of the filmmakers.