|
|
|
|
|
Strong SA link in festival choices
|
July 3, 2009
Not only will this year’s Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) open, on July 23, with a film by a Durban director, but several other films on the programme will have a strong South African link.
The festival will open with the Durban film My Secret Sky (Izulu Lami), directed by Madoda Ncayiyana and featuring a cast of child actors who have not performed on screen before.
Also on the programme are world premieres of the South African feature films Shirley Adams, by young director Oliver Hermanus; Long Street, the new film from Revel Fox, which features Durban music icon Busi Mhlongo; and For Better For Worse, Naresh Veeran and Raeesa Mahomed’s charming Durban-set romantic comedy.
“Also making its premiere at the festival is White Lion, the beautifully shot tale of a young man’s protection of a rare white lion,” says publicist Sharlene Versfeld.
Other South African films, she adds, include Anthony Fabian’s Skin, based on the true story of a physically black girl born to white parents in apartheid South Africa; Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace, based on JM Coetzee’s award-winning novel and starring John Malkovich; Savo Tufedgzic’s psychological thriller Crime – It’s a Way of Life; and J J van Rensburg’s coming-of-age drama, Intonga.
“In one of the most talked about films of the year, soccer icon Eric Cantona gives a charming performance in Ken Loach’s hilarious and touching Looking For Eric, which has its African premiere at the festival,” adds Versfeld.
Also of note are Alexis Dos Santos’s Unmade Beds, Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In and An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig, from a screenplay by popular British novelist Nick Hornby, which has been described as a joyous and funny drama.
Fresh from its Camera d’Or win in Cannes, Australian Warwick Thornton’s Samson & Delilah also makes its African debut at the festival.
The festival includes films by some of the world’s most prominent directors, such as Steven Soderbergh (Che), Takeshi Kitano (Achilles and the Tortoise), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Still Walking), Rituparno Ghosh (After Words, a DIFF world premiere), Tunde Kelani (Arugba), Kim Jee-woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird), Deepa Mehta (Heaven On Earth), Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo), Priyadarshan (Kanchivaram), the Dardenne brothers (Lorna’s Silence), Mamoru Oshii (The Sky Crawlers) and Philippe Lioret (Welcome).
New film-makers will include acclaimed Indian actress Nandita Das, whose directorial debut, Firaaq, takes an honest look at religious division and violence in India. Others include Mama Keïta (The Absence), Ramtin Lavafipour (Be Calm and Count To Seven), Edwin (Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly), Eugenie Jansen (Calimucho), Satish Manwar (The Damned Rain), Shashanka Ghosh (Quick Gun Murugan), Wanuri Kahiu (From a Whisper), Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (Helen), Uberto Pasolini (Machan), Leon Dai (No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti) and So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain).
The festival will also focus on cinema from France, India and Palestine. “In an impressive year for Palestinian cinema, the festival will present three very different and very powerful films: Najwa Najjar’s Pomegranates and Myrrh, Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of This Sea and Rashid Masharawi’s Laila’s Birthday.”
Of 43 documentaries at this year’s festival, 21 are from or in co-production with SA, and eight are from or in co-production with African countries.
Politics and history feature prominently, with Iseta – Beyond the Roadblock covering the return to Rwanda of the film-maker who shot the only known footage of killings during the Rwanda genocide, remarkable considering more than a million people were murdered.
Zola Maseko explores ancient African civilisation in The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, while the resurgence of tribalism in contemporary South Africa is dissected by Ntokozo Mahlalela in Tribes and Clans.
The story of South African artistic icon Dumile Feni comes to life in the world premiere of Ramadan Suleman’s Zwelidumile.
The festival will also present the world premiere of South Africans Craig and Damon Foster’s Ice Man, about Lewis Pugh, who swims the world’s polar regions to highlight the impending climate catastrophe. The film forms a Foster brothers’ double-header with their Nature of Life and is also part of a number of ecologically themed films.
Another doccie of note is Saving Luna, which tells the heartwarming story of a young Orca whale that befriends humans and stirs up debate about the boundaries that separate nature and humans.
The Hawk Takes One Chick features cinematography by 2008 festival documentary winner Karin Slater, while mercurial KZN social workers and abused children feature in Kim Longinotto’s moving, Sundance-winning Rough Aunties.
Principal screening venues of the festival are the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, Nu Metro Cinecentre at Suncoast, Ster- Kinekor at Musgrave, Cinema Nouveau at Gateway, Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre in KwaMashu, and The Royal Hotel, with further screenings in township areas where cinemas are non-existent.
Programme booklets with the full screening schedule and synopses of all the films are available free at cinemas, Computicket and other outlets. For all film synopses, schedules and workshop info visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za For more info call 031 260 2506/1650.
[Email this story...]
[Easy Print...]
|
|
