(Moneoa Moshesh as Eve & Richard Lukunki as Max in “Back of the Moon”)
Videovision Entertainment’s Director of
Acquisition and Distribution Sanjeev Singh,has announced that the company will screen five
films, at the 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) which runs from July
18 to 28, 2019.
DIFF will host the World Premiere of the
powerful Sophiatown film, Back Of The
Moon and South African premiere of the Cannes Film Festival Jury
Award-winner, Les Misérables, while Sarafina!, More Than Just A Game and Freedom Square And Back Of The Moon will be screened in the section, Celebrating
25 Years of Democracy.
“We are delighted to be participating in the
Durban International Film Festival in its milestone 40th edition and we are
proud to continue our association which spans these four decades,” said Sanjeev
Singh. “It is exciting to have two South African premieres with Back Of The Moon and Les Misérables, and to screen Sarafina!, More Than Just A Game and Freedom Square And Back Of The Moon in
the commemorative section, Celebrating 25 Years of Democracy. Each of these
films tell unique stories of South Africa’s liberation history.”
Back Of The Moon is directed by Academy
Award® nominee, Angus Gibson and stars Richard Lukunku, Moneoa Moshesh,
Lemogang Tsipa, Siya Zulu and Thomas Gumede. 1958 Sophiatown. On the eve of his
home being demolished by apartheid police, Badman a notorious gangster decides
to fight them to the death. But then Eve, a gorgeous torch singer is thrust
into his orbit. On the last day of his life Badman finds something worth living
for.
Inspired by the French riots of 2005, Les Misérables, is the first feature
film by director Ladj Ly. Les Misérables,
follows Stéphane who has recently joined the Anti-Crime Brigade in the Paris
suburb of Montfermeil. Alongside his new colleagues, he quickly discovers that
the tensions between neighbourhood gangs are running high. When the team find
themselves overrun during the course of an arrest, a drone captures their every
movement, their every action. Inspired by the riots of 2005, director Ladj Ly
explores contemporary Montfermeil, the same place where novelist Victor Hugo
chose to set Les Misérables in 1862.
More than 150 years later, the similarities between today’s angry,
hoodie-wearing youth and Hugo’s protagonists are only too clear.
Sarafina!, based on the student
uprising of 16 June 1976, is a film that burns with a raw truth about life in
apartheid South Africa while affirming the highest values of the human spirit.
It is the story of Sarafina who, like other young students of the time, adopted
a campaign of resistance against the police presence in their schools. She
imagines the support of her role model, Nelson Mandela, and finds an ally in
her teacher, Mary Masombuka, who supports the students in their cause. Based on
Mbongeni Ngema’s stage musical, Sarafina!,
the film is produced by Anant Singh and directed by Darrell James Roodt, and
stars Leleti Khumalo, Mbongeni Ngema, John Kani, Robert Whitehead, Miriam
Makeba, Somizi Mhlongo and Academy Award® Winner, Whoopi Goldberg.
Told through the stories of five former
prisoners, More Than Just A Game follows
the story of how political prisoners on Robben Island in the 1960s rise above
their incarceration by creating a football league, the Makana Football
Association, and find an outlet for their passion and commitment to discipline
through football. Directed by Junaid Ahmed and produced by Anant Singh and
Helena Spring, More Than Just A Game stars
Presley Chweneyagae, Wright Ngubeni and Tshepo Maseko.
Freedom Square and Back Of The Moon focuses on
Sophiatown the closest place to the city centre of Johannesburg, occupied by
black South Africans. It was home to writers, journalists, artists, politicians
– the black intellectual heart of the city. It is not surprising then that it
was the first area to be targeted by the Nationalist Government for removals
which took place from 1955 to 1959. In this documentary, the directors, Angus
Gibson and William Kentridge, use interviews, archive material, drawings and
extracts from the 1986 protest play Sophiatown,
to explore the life and destruction of Sophiatown.
Angus Gibson commented, “My interest in the
unique world of Sophiatown was born in the eighties when William Kentridge and
I made the documentary, Freedom Square
And Back Of The Moon, about its life and destruction. Thirty years later,
in the feature film, Back Of The Moon,
I recreate the world of those gangsters, singers and intellectuals that I met
back then. It is a curious genre brew of gangster film and romance. I am
thrilled that both films will be shown at DIFF this year.”
Videovision Entertainment is also a proud
sponsor of the Durban FilmMart since its first edition ten years ago. The
company returns as the sponsor of the “Best South African Film Project” prize. Valued
at R75,000, and valid for four years, the prize guarantees the winning film a
commercial release once it is completed and includes marketing and distribution
support from Videovision Entertainment.
The Durban FilmMart runs from July 19 to 22,
2019.
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