DIFF FOCUS ON SWEDEN

Ingmar Bergman films for Durban International Film Festival.

This year the Durban International Film Festival will present a focus on the cinema of Sweden made up of five contemporary Swedish films under the banner Swedish Film Is Here, and five films by the great Ingmar Bergman in the section Swedish Film Is Bergman.

Swedish Film Is Here is made up of the outstanding debut Sebbe by Babak Najafi, Jesper Gansladt’s tense The Ape, DIFF regular Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth (starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams), Tarik Saleh’s exquisite animated film Metropia, and Niels Arden Oplev’s much-anticipated The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo based on the bestselling novel. In Swedish Film Is Bergman, five of the great master’s films will be presented: Smiles of a Summer’s Night (1955), Wild Strawberries (1957), Winter Light (1963), Cries and Whispers (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982).

Principal screening venues of the festival are the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre; Nu Metro Cinecentre - Suncoast; Ster Kinekor Junction – Musgrave; Cinema Nouveau - 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. Call 031 2602506 or 031 2601650 for further details.

The Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre For Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) with support by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (principal funder), National Film and Video Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism, HIVOS, City Of Durban, German Embassy, Goethe Institut, Industrial Development Corporation, Commonwealth Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture, and a range of other valued partners.

For full festival information, click on the Centre for Creative Arts advert which will take you to the Durban International Film Festival site.