Clarissa

Arie and Chuko Esiri announced themselves to the world with Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) in 2021 — a film so formally rigorous and humanly generous that it reset expectations for what Nigerian cinema could be. Clarissa, selected for the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes 2026, confirms that Eyimofe was not a fluke. It is, if anything, more assured.

Clarissa (Bisola Aiyeola) is a Lagos woman in her late thirties navigating the collapse of her marriage, the demands of her ailing mother, and a freelance career that is barely sustaining her. The film follows seventy-two hours in her life, structured in three movements, each named for a person who wants something from her. It sounds schematic. It never feels it.

Aiyeola, who has been one of Nigerian entertainment’s most chameleonic performers across music and screen, gives the kind of performance here that redefines a career. She is in nearly every frame and finds something new in each one. The Esiri Brothers’ camera watches her with the attentive patience of people who understand that the most important things happen in the face, not in the action.

Lagos — shot in the same intimate, unbeautified style as Eyimofe — feels like a city trying to hold itself together while everyone in it is trying to do the same. A film of tremendous maturity and compassion.

Verdict: The Esiri Brothers are making films that will outlast all of us. Clarissa is their best yet.