Zombies to storm Cannes

THE blood and gore of zombies will descend on the Cannes Film Festival, courtesy of a South African filmmaker.

But the director, Port Elizabeth-born Howard James Fyvie, does not see the film as being primarily about undead creatures, even though it is billed as Africa’s first zombie film.

“Last Ones Out isn’t a zombie film. It’s . . . a relationship story about a selfish guy and a selfless girl. Put the two of them together, make them have to work together to survive, throw in some zombies, and you’re gonna have one heck of a drama,” he said.

The film does contain the walking dead, with a local flavour. “It shows the audience something they’ve never seen before — the zombie genre unfolding in an African context. We have these four characters journeying through an abandoned and empty African region, staying together to make it out alive, and the constant threat of zombies.”

The film, shot over two weeks in the Western Cape, also features a zombie chase sequence in a township, fights and stunts.

Money was a problem throughout filming.

Fyvie could not find an American producer to put up the R5-million needed. “So instead of making excuses, I bit the bullet, quit my job and decided to make a film.”

Other South African films also made the grade, funded by the National Film and Video Foundation. Actor and filmmaker Akin Omotoso will promote his latest film, Tell Me Sweet Something, and actress Terry Pheto will be in Cannes as a first-time producer, of the film Ayanda.