After arcane administrative issues saw it go AWOL last year, the Durban International Film Festival has returned to barracks and looks set to impress with a world-class line-up of art film fare.
Under the new directorship of Alex Holt and the University of Natal-Durban’s Centre for Creative Arts, this year the festival celebrates its 21st birthday, making it one of the oldest in the country. And they’ll do it with a smorgasbord of about 45 films from the four corners of the Earth.
And beyond, as is the case in Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky’s modern masterpiece, which receives its first South African screening here. Made in 1979, the great Russian director’s magnum opus weighs in at almost three hours long and tells the eerie tale of The Zone, a mysterious otherworldly phenomenon that transports those who enter to a realm from which none return.
Stalker is a guide for those who illegally enter this sinister, seductive domain and he transports a writer and a scientist on an epic journey through the post-apocalyptic wastelands. Possessed of intense poetic and philosophical substance, the film is also a landmark in visual terms, with the sparse, harrowing reliefs of the metaphoric Zone causing the film to be regarded by many critics as one of the most influential in 20th century cinema.
Of more recent vintage but no less interesting is Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, the offbeat indie gem which caused a stir in the United States last year, and Small Time Crooks, the latest instalment in Woody Allen’s apparently interminable directorial career.
Also from the US comes the truly tacky Red Lipstick, the ultra-lowbrow kitschfest that has two none-too-glam drag queens, Hedda Lettuce and Miss Understood, embarking upon an ill-fated career in crime. Having turned into the bankrobbers Bonny and Bunny, the gals’ booty attracts the unwanted attentions of toxic waste magnate and underworld honcho Frankie with preposterous results. Every frame in the worst possible taste.
Cinematic fare of an indigenous flavour includes Nicolaas Hofmeyr’s Main Reef Road, a quixotic comedy of down-and-outs and car-racing beauty queens; The Liberal and The Pirate, Guy Spiller’s luminous tale of David Pratt, the man who shot HF Verwoerd at the 1960 Rand Show and hung out at The Pirate, a Ramsgate hotel owned by his grandmother; Michael Brown’s short Clowns and Michael Hammon and Jacqueline Gordon’s original and compelling documentary, Hillbrow Kids.
Other films to look out for are Beat Takeshi’s astringent comedy Kikujiro; Vijay Singh’s Jaya Ganga; Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey; Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s Angels of the Universe and Czech director Jiri Barta’s gut-wrenching modern puppet version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Aside from the films, another important aspect of the festival is the participation of visiting directors. Workshops and seminars, open to the public and free of charge, are to be held by Irish writer/director Liam O’Mochain (The Book That Wrote Itself); Zimbabwean director John Riber (Yellow Card); scriptwriter Pascal Lettelier (Cuba Feliz); Nigerian academic Dr Frank Ukadike and Indian writer/director Vijay Singh (Jaya Ganga).
The festival will also be screening several films in communities which have no cinemas, as well as organising a Local Filmmakers’ Forum where hometown auteurs can exchange ideas with their peers and present clips from their works.
The 21st Durban International Film Festival takes place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of Natal, Durban, from October 17 to 29. Bookings are through Computicket.