Durban-made films among fine fest
THE 38th Durban International Film Festival began yesterday and continues until July 23. Leading the line-up is the opening night film Serpent, produced by Enigma Films, Plastic Soldiers, and Videovision Entertainment.
It is writer/director Amanda Evans’ debut feature film. It explores a romantic escape into nature which becomes the ultimate moment of reckoning when a husband and wife are trapped in a tent with a deadly black mamba. Unable to escape and with certain death looming, the tent becomes a heated confessional to a cataclysmic truth. Betrayed, the couple find themselves spiralling into a dark and dangerous game of survival, where the truth can do anything but set you free. It stars Sarah Dumont and Tom Ainsley.
Serpent is one of four films presented by the Durban-based company.
Sanjeev Singh, the director of acquisition and distribution at Videovision Entertainment, said: “Of special significance to Durban is The Killing Floor, the first film from Durban production company KZF. The film is written and directed by Philip Gardner and features Jonathan Pienaar, Patrick Ndlovu and Durban’s Themi Venturas.
“Below her Mouth is a ground-breaking film with an all-woman crew, while Viceroy’s House explores the role played by Britain’s last Viceroy to India, Lord Mountbatten, in negotiating independence and handing India back to its people in 1947. The film stars Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Michael Gambon, Manish Dayal and Om Puri, and is directed by Gurinder Chadha.”
The festival also features 10 gripping films by some of Germany’s finest directors, a masterclass by German film industry professionals, as well as networking sessions with the cream of the international film industry crop.
Curated by Alex Moussa Sawadogo, films include The People vs Fritz Bauer (which relates to German history after World War II and the role of the attorney Fritz Bauer in confronting the state with its political shortcomings); Paula (which recounts the journey of a well-known early 20th century painter who discovered her artistic freedom in a more traditional Germany); Goodbye Berlin (a depiction of how the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany merged into one state, taking two young children as the protagonists of a road movie through former East Germany); and Greetings From Fukushima (which breaks down the common stereotypes that surround Germans) will leave audiences with a better understanding of German history, culture and people.
While Goodbye Berlin ties in with this year’s overall festival theme, Transit Tales, All of a Sudden, Greetings From Fukushima, Paula and Karl Marx City speak to one of this year’s focus areas – women-led films.
DIFF audiences will have the