DIFF CELEBRATES 30TH EDITION

30th Durban International Film Festival to run from July 23 to August 2, 2009.

The landmark 30th Durban International Film Festival brings together films and filmmakers from around the world in a celebration of the diversity and magic of cinema. Across eleven intense days DIFF will present over 200 screenings at venues across the city of Durban and in surrounding communities. While the selection of fascinating, passionate and entertaining films forms the centre of the festival, an extensive programme of free workshops and seminars – this year based at the Royal Hotel - will prime a new generation of South African filmmakers.

Fittingly, the 30th edition of the festival will open with the Durban film, My Secret Sky (Izulu Lami) directed by Madoda Ncayiyana, and featuring a wonderful cast of child actors who have never performed for the screen before. The festival will close with Woody Allen’s hilarious Whatever Works, which stars Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Evan Rachel Wood.

In between these two great bookends, audiences will encounter some of the year’s most eagerly-anticipated films, award-winners from major festivals and world premieres from South Africa and beyond.

World premieres of South African feature films include Shirley Adams by the extremely talented young director Oliver Hermanus, Long Street, the new film from Revel Fox which features the Durban 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. Other South African films 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, Savo Tufedgzic’s psychological thriller Crime - It’s A Way Of Life, and JJ 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 makes its African premiere at the festival. An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by the popular British novelist, Nick Hornby, is 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. Iconic actors Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate co-star in Rachid Bouchareb’s deeply moving London River which is set in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in London. Audrey Tautou (Amelie) gives a star turn in Anne Fontaine’s sumptuous Coco Before Chanel which looks at the life of the fashion legend.

The festival includes films by some of the world’s most prominent directors such as Steven Soderbergh (Che), Takeshi Kitano (Achilles and the Tortoise), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Three Monkeys), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Still Walking), Rituparno Ghosh (After Words, a DIFF world premiere), Tunde Kelani (Arugba), Laurent Cantet (the Palme d’Or winner, The Class), 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).

Alongside these experienced filmmakers, DIFF 2009 will introduce South African audiences to the next generation of auteurs. New filmmakers include the 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).

Apart from the strong representation of South African cinema, DIFF will focus on the cinemas of 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.

NB: In a year deeply constrained by funding cutbacks festival organisers the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN ) highlight the important role played by principal funders the National Film and Video Foundation, Stichting Doen, HIVOS, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, City of Durban, Industrial Development Corporation, Department of Arts and Culture (Film, Video and Sound Archives) and the support from East Coast Radio, and other valued sponsors and partners. Talent Campus Durban, a cooperation project with the Berlinale Film Festival is supported by the German Embassy, Goethe Institute of South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, and Art Moves Africa.