With just a month left until the Durban International Film Festival, organisers have announced the live screening line-up that will be showing at the Suncoast CineCentre.
This year’s 10-day hybrid festival consisting of almost 200 features, documentaries, shorts and student films will be held from July 21 to 30, under the theme of “Adaptation, Survival and Sustainability”.
The programme's greatest strength is its 50 percent female content contribution and representation and a 30 percent directorial debut.
These are some of the features worth watching live.
“Wind Blows In The Border“- Showing on July 22 at 6pm
On the violent border between Brazil and Paraguay, a war is being waged around the expansion of agribusiness. As described by Faerman, “the documentary narrates the trajectory of two women who are on opposite sides of a violent conflict over land in Brazil. Thus, the film shows two opposing and irreconcilable universes: that of the owners of large tracts of land and that of Indigenous Peoples.
“Eiffel”- Showing on July 22 at 8.30PM
Having just finished his collaboration on the Statue of Liberty, celebrated engineer Gustave Eiffel is on top of the world. Now, the French government is pressuring him to design something spectacular for the 1889 Paris World Fair, but Eiffel simply wants to design a train line. Suddenly, everything changes when Eiffel crosses paths with a mysterious woman from his past. Their long lost, forbidden passion inspires him to change the Paris skyline forever. You will never look at the Eiffel Tower the same way again!
“Ring Wandering” - Showing on uly 23 at 11.30am
Directed by Masakazu Kaneko, is a fantasy drama about a young man who aspires to be a manga artist and traces the memories of past sleeping souls in downtown Tokyo. One winter’s day, Sosuke finds an animal’s skull while digging foundations at a construction site.
“Juwaa”- Showing July 24 at 2pm
Directed by Nganji Mutiri, in which a son and a mother are reunited in Belgium after a traumatic night in the Congo.
“Notre Dame on Fire”- Showing July 24 at 6.30pm
Directed by Jean-Jacque Annaud, is a thriller drama that gives a blow-by-blow recreation of the gripping events that took place on April 15, 2019, when the cathedral suffered the biggest blaze in its history.
“Taamaden" - Showing on July 26 at 2pm
Ouloulou, Baldé and Doucouré are three young immigrants from West Africa. They say they faced the crossing of the Mediterranean, thanks to their marabout or spiritual guides who recommended prayers and rituals. Once they arrived in Valencia, Spain, they kept in touch with their marabout in the hope that he would continue to improve their living conditions.
“Public Toilet Africa”- Showing on July 26 at 4pm
Directed by Felix ‘Kofi’ Ofosu-Yeboah, in which a reticent Ama returns to the city, where she was gifted to a white art collector as a little girl, with a quest to even the score.
“Batata“ - Showing on July 26 at 6pm
Shot over an unparalleled 10 years, the latest film by Lebanese-Syrian filmmaker, Noura Kevorkian (23 Kilometres, Official Competition Karlovy Vary), follows the plight of Maria and her family of Syrian migrant workers who, after toiling for decades in Lebanon’s fertile Bekaa valley, find themselves unable to return back to their hometown of Raqqa Syria.
“Valley of a Thousand Hills”- Showing on July 28 at 8.30pm
Directed by Bonnie Sithebe, in which a young woman from a conservative village must choose between living a lie to stay the perfect Zulu daughter or risk her life for true love - with another woman.
“Skeletons”- Showing July 28 at 5.30pm
A South African production directed by Jade Bowers, is set in the Maluti mountains and is a magical realist film that grapples with social and political issues and matters of land and ownership.
“You’re my favourite place” - Showing on July 29 at 8pm
Set in the backdrop of the Eastern Cape in South Africa, four freedom-seeking teenage friends, Nelisa, Tiny, Zongi and Cwaita, are set on commemorating their looming entry into adulthood after their last day of high school. The eclectic but troubled group decide that they will do whatever it takes to road trip to ‘Hole in The Wall’ – a coastal landmark with the reputation of harbouring the spirits of the dead.