(Scene from “Adam & Ida”
(Germany)- Photo by Sven Kiesche)
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s
Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) will host the Durban International Film Festival
(DIFF) from July 21 to 30, 2022. The 43rd edition of the festival programme
speaks to the curatorial theme of Adaptation, Survival and Sustainability.
The festival will present a carefully curated selection of South African
premieres, screening virtually on www.durbanfilmfest.com and in
person at CineCentre Suncoast Casino.
On July 21, DIFF2022 opened with the
live and virtual screening of 1960, directed by Michael Mutombo and King
Shaft. You’re My Favourite Place by Jahmil X T Qubeka will close the
festival on July 29, after film-lovers still have the opportunity to see the
film online on July 30. The awards will also take place virtually on July 30,
2022.
Festival manager, Valma Pfaff, is
proud to announce the films in competition that are diverse but have a common
thread of adaptation and instilling hope for the future.
“The past two years have proven to
be trying times, and the narratives of many of these films offer us a
reflection on these sometimes-desperate moments. At the same time, filmmakers also
share stories of hope and optimism, bringing to life the way people support
each other while carefully looking forward to a brighter future,” says Pfaff.
The organisers of DIFF have this
same careful optimism about the future of film.
“The industry has changed, and
offering the DIFF as a hybrid festival felt like the best solution to cater for
our audiences in different ways. We are beyond excited to be able to invite our
audience in person to the cinema again. We also acknowledge the many opportunities
to keep expanding our audiences virtually,” says Centre for Creative Arts
Director, Ismail Mahomed.
Documentaries in the 2022
Competition:
-Adam & Ida, a
German film directed by Jan Tenhaven, tells the story of Polish-Jewish twins
who survived the Holocaust.
-African
Moot, directed by Shameela Seedat, shares the story of the competitors in the
prestigious African Human Rights Moot Court Competition.
-Batata,
directed by Lebanese -Syrian filmmaker Noura Kervokian follows the plight of
Syrian Migrant workers.
(Right: “Black Mambas” Poster
(France/Germany).)
-From Germany hails Black Mambas,
directed by Lena Karbe, which follows an all-female anti-poaching unit in
Kruger National Park.
-Forgotten Dreams,
directed by Marwa El Sharkawy from Egypt, follows the story of a young,
talented, colloquial poet who discovers he has kidney failure.
-Girl, Taken, from
South Africa and Ireland, directed by Simon Wood and Francois Verster, tells
the incredible story of two parents whose baby was stolen from Groote Schuur
Hospital in Cape Town, who miraculously found her 17 years later, and then lost
her again.
-German documentary; Kash Kash,
Feathers without Wings, directed by Lea Najjar, tells the story of how her
hometown, Beirut, was torn apart by a corrupt political elite, anti-government
protests, and one of the biggest explosions of the 21st century.
-Umkhumbane In Me,
directed by Malcolm Sonnyboy Nhleko from South Africa, shows us life through
the eyes of Madala “Bafo” Kunene. One gets a raw glimpse of the painful moments
that defined his musical journey.
-Music Is
My Life, directed by Mpumi Supa from South Africa, is the
official story of African icon Joseph Shabalala, who rises to international
fame with his band Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
-N-Ice Cello,
directed by Corrado Bungaro from Italy, tells a story from the heart of a
glacier in the Italian Alps in which an American sculptor shaped a cello
entirely made of ice.
-No Simple Way Home,
directed by the South-Sudanese Akuol de Mabior, is an intergenerational
conversation that charts the struggle to reconcile family and country.
-No U-Turn,
directed by Nollywood filmmaker Ike Nnabue goes back to the path he took at the
dawn of his adult life when he wanted to reach Europe.
-Portraits Of The Future, directed
by Virna Molina from Argentina, paints a picture of how before the pandemic,
filmmaker Virna Molina was shooting a film about the resistance of the subway
delegates in Buenos Aires that was interrupted by “lockdown”.
-Taamaden,
directed by Seydou Cissé from Cameroon, follows three young immigrants from
West Africa who take the viewer into the world of African spirituality in the
age of new technologies.
-In The Delights, director;
Eduardo Crespo hailing from Argentina, shows how more than 120 kids live
together in Las Delicias agrotechnical boarding school in the Argentine
countryside.
-Wind Blows In The Border, by
directors; Laura Faerman and Marina Weis from Brazil is about the fight for
ancestral lands.
(Right: “Ring Wandering” poster (Japan).)
Feature Films in the 2022
Competition:
-1960 directors;
King Shaft and Michael Motumbo from South Africa show what happens when the
remains of an apartheid-era policeman are discovered 60 years after he went
missing; a retired singer revisits her past to help with the investigation. But
how much does she know, and what is she holding back?
-2 Thirds of a Man,
directed by Earl Shaun Kopeledi from South Africa, draws an image of how Justin
returns to Cape Town as a first-year student at Rocklands University after
spending most of his teenage years living in Beaufort West, where his mom took
up a teaching job after the untimely death of his father, a musician on the
brink of success.
-Bangarang,
directed by Robin Odongo from Kenya, is inspired by actual events. Otile, a
poor ‘bodaboda’ rider, is jobless ten years after graduating with a
second-class honours degree in automotive engineering. When election violence
erupts after the disputed Kenyan presidential elections, Otile leads other
rioters in the streets of Kisumu.
-Bantú Mama,
directed by Ivan Herrera, follows, after being arrested in the Dominican
Republic, an Afropean woman who escapes and is sheltered by three minors in a
dangerous district of Santo Domingo.
-Dealer,
directed by Jeroen Perceval from Belgium, lets one in on a story about a 14-year-old
drug runner Johnny, staying in a home for young people from challenging
backgrounds. He dreams of a better life.
-Donkeyhead is a
2021 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Agam Darshi in her
directorial debut. The plot follows Mona (37), a failed writer who carves out a
life of isolation while caring for her ailing traditional Sikh father
-Good Madam,
directed by Jenna Cato Bass, is a psychological thriller and a commentary on
the contemporary state of race relations in South Africa following the end of
apartheid.
-Juwaa,
directed by Nganji Mutiri and shot in Belgium and the Congo, is a powerful
drama based on African characters rarely seen on screens. Years after a
traumatic night, a son and a mother slowly reveal all the layers that redefine
what they mean to each other.
-Klondike,
directed by Maryna Er Gorbach from Ukraine, follows July 2014, when expectant
parents’ nervous anticipation of their first child’s birth is violently
disrupted as the vicinal crash of flight MH17 elevates the forbidding tension
enveloping their village.
-Public Toilet Africa,
director; Felix (Kofi) Ofosu-Yeboah from Ghana follows after several years of
her disappearance; a reticent Ama returns to the city where she was gifted to a
white art collector as a little girl. Her quest to even the score results in a
heist-gone-wrong that sends her and an ex-lover on a lonely country road.
-Ring Wandering,
director; Masakazu Kaneko from Japan captures a story in central Tokyo, where a
young man named Sosuke aspires to be a manga artist.
-Streams,
directed by Mehdi Hmili, hailing from Tunisia, Amel works in a factory in
Tunis. She lives with her alcoholic husband Tahar, a former local football
player, and their only son Moumen, a talented teenage football goalkeeper.
(Left: Scene from “Tug of War” (Tanzania).)
-Tug of War, directed
by Amil Shivji from Tanzania, brings a coming-of-age political love story set
in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. Denge, a young freedom
fighter, meets Yasmin, an Indian-Zanzibari woman, in the middle of the night as
she is on her way to be married.
Films will compete for titles such
as Best Feature Film and Best Documentary, Best Performer and Best
Cinematography. The jury consist of industry specialists from over the globe.
Programme and details
DIFF 2022 will be presented in a
hybrid edition with online screenings at www.durbanfilmfest.com and a diverse live programme at CineCentre,
Suncoast Casino, Durban. Tickets for all live screenings are accessible on www.cinecentre.co.za
The entire festival programme can be seen on www.durbanfilmfest.com
The 43rd edition of the festival is
produced by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, in
partnership and with the support of KZN Film Commission, the National Film and
Video Foundation, KZN Department of Arts & Culture, Avalon Group and other
valued funders and partners.
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