by Yazeed Kamaldien
Cape Town - Ninety films from 54 countries are being shown at this year’s Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), which opened with a Burkina Faso film focused on terrorism in Africa.
The 10-day DIFF started with a screening of Sira, a fictionalised story of terrorists who capture young girls, which bears testimony to the tenacity of women despite tough conditions.
DIFF runs until July 30 and gathers film-makers to engage with audiences at film screenings. It also offers R10 000 cash prizes to winning films in five categories.
Nathalie Vairac, one of the lead actresses in Sira, made her way to DIFF for the first time, and said its value was in “meeting other actors and film-makers to talk about making films in Africa”.
“It’s an honour to have our film opening the festival,” she said. “Showing this film in South Africa is saying that Africa is one continent. And we need to fight for the same rights to protect peace and humanity.
“We also went on a tour of Durban, discovering the story of the city. That is important, to know where we are, instead of just coming to show our film and then going home. This is how we get to know about Africa, too.”
Ismail Mahomed, the director of the Centre For Creative Arts that runs DIFF, said the 44th edition of the festival also had an inaugural Brazilian component. DIFF had partnered with the Brazil Africa Film Festival for a film-maker exchange over two years.
“The is our inaugural year and we thought Brazil would be interesting because of the South-South relations. This could lead to similar exchanges with other Latin American countries,” Mahomed said.
Ana Esteves, the director of the Brazil Africa Film Festival that launched in 2018, said its goal was to “showcase contemporary African cinema because we don’t have much of this in Brazil”.
“We don’t really know Africa. We have the interest but not the contact. We know Brazilians also came from Africa. We know how complex our story is. But we don’t know the continent today,” she said.
“We want to meet African film-makers and we want to go to African film festivals. We want to show their films in Brazil to also address stereotypes about Africa.”
Mahomed said this year’s DIFF was the first held in-person since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We think cinema should be seen live. It is about the opportunity for the audience and film-makers to connect, and we do this in a very dynamic way,” he said.
“As new technology evolves, we need to embrace it. That is about broadening markets for audiences. But there is a real need for film-makers to meet each other in person to talk about the industry, meet funders and talk to audiences.
“Our audiences are returning to the festival and there’s a high that the festival is back after Covid-19. And more than just serving the film community, we are also creating jobs in the city and profiling Durban as a safe tourist destination.”
The Durban FilmMart, a business-oriented event, has been running alongside DIFF from July 21 to 24.