DIFF 2022 - Durban International Film Festival
Le festival international du film de Durban est l'un des cinq festivals présentés par le Centre des arts créatifs de l'université du Kwazulu-Natal. Les autres festivals sont le Time of the Writer festival, le JOMBA ! Dance festival, le festival Poetry Africa et le festival Artfluence Human Rights. Le Centre for Creative Arts, situé dans l'école des arts de l'université, est un centre pluridisciplinaire qui valorise le pouvoir et la capacité des arts à contribuer au changement social.

Le festival en ligne est gratuit sur
www.durbanfilmfest.com

The Durban International Film Festival is one of five festivals presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. The other festivals are the Time of the Writer festival, the JOMBA! Dance festival, the Poetry Africa, and Artfluence Human Rights festivals. The Centre for Creative Arts, located in the School of the Arts at the University, is a multi-disciplinary hub that values the power and agency vested in the arts to contribute to social change.

The online festival is free on
durbanfilmfest.com


2022 FILMS


FEATURES
OPENING FILM /// 1960 /// 1H 31M - FEATURE - 2022
2 Thirds of a Man /// 1H 53M - FEATURE - 2021
A Taste of Our Land /// 1H 25M - FEATURE - 2020
Balloon Animal /// 1H 28M - DRAMA, COMING-OF-AGE - 2021
Bangarang /// 1H 29M - FEATURE, FICTION - 2021
Bantù Mama /// 1H 17M - FEATURE - 2021
Collision Course /// 1H 20M - FEATURE - 2021
Dark Matter /// 1H 30M - DRAMA, THRILLER - 2021
Dealer /// 1H 45M - DRAMA, THRILLER - 2021
Donkeyhead /// 1H 50M - DRAMA, COMEDY - 2021
Dostojee /// 1H 51M - FEATURE - 2021
Good Madam /// 1H 32M - HORROR, DRAMA - 2021
Juwaa /// 1H 26M - FEATURE - 2021
Klondike /// 1H 40M - ANTI-WAR, DRAMA - 2022
Nostalgia /// 1H 57M - DRAMA - 2022
Playing Through /// 1H 27M - FEATURE - 2022
Public Toilet Africa /// 1H 35M - FEATURE - 2021
Ring Wandering /// 1H 44M - DRAMA, FANTASY - 2021
Skeletons /// 1H 15M - FEATURE - 2022
Streams /// 2H 0M - FEATURE - 2021
The Crossing (La Traversée) /// 1H 52M - DRAMA - 2021
The Stranger /// 1H 53M - FEATURE - 2021
Tug of War /// 1H 30M - FEATURE - 2021
Valley of a Thousand Hills /// 1H 38M - FEATURE - 2022
CLOSING FILM /// You're My Favourite Place /// 1H 48M - FEATURE - 2022


DOCUMENTARIES
Adam & Ida - Almost a Fairytale /// 1H 22M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
African Moot /// 1H 25M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Batata /// 2H 0M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Black Mambas /// 1H 21M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Forgotten Dreams /// 1H 30M - DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE - 2021
Girl, Taken /// 1H 32M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Kash Kash - Without Feathers We Can't Live /// 1H 30M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Lesotho, The Weeping Motherland /// 48M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
uMkhumbane In Me - Madala Kunene /// 1H 22M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Music Is My Life /// 1H 30M - DOCUMENTARY, MUSICAL - 2022
N-Ice Cello: Tale of the Ice Cello /// 1H 18M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
No Simple Way Home /// 1H 25M - DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE - 2022
No U-Turn /// 1H 34M - DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE - 2022
Portraits of the Future /// 1H 28M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Sonnyboy- The Making of a sound man /// 1H 20M - DOCUMENTARY - 2020
The Double Futures of Athlone /// 54M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Taamaden /// 1H 27M - DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE - 2021
The Talking Guitar - Themba Mokoena /// 1H 24M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
The Delights /// 1H 15M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Wind Blows The Border /// 1H 17M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022


SHORTS
1961 /// 25M - DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Amagama Ka Nokutela /// 11M - SHORT - 2021
Beauty for Ashes /// 16M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2022
Bitch /// 15M - SHORT Drama, STUDENT - 2021
BLACKINDIA /// 24M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2022
Blind Spot (Angle mort) /// 13M - ANIMATION, DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Burros /// 14M - SHORT - 2021
Brownsville Bred /// 23M - SHORT, TELEVISION - 2022
BLVCK GOLD /// 19M - SHORT Drama, STUDENT - 2021
CAI-BER /// 17M - SHORT - 2021
Calf /// 12M - EXPERIMENTAL, STUDENT - 2021
Candidato 34 /// 38M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Chameleon /// 35M - SHORT - 2022
Coming Home /// 40M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Cupids /// 10M - SHORT - 2021
Desmond's Not Here Anymore /// 15M - SHORT - 2021
Diiyeghan Naii Taii Tr'eedaa /// 6M - DOCUMENTARY, EXPERIMENTAL - 2021
Dream Writer /// 30M - SHORT - 2022
Herdsboy /// 15M - DOCUMENTARY, SOCIAL ISSUES - 2021
Identity /// 35M - DRAMA, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER - 2022
I Love You, Customer /// 22M - SHORT - 2021
Kunde /// 35M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
KZN's Hidden Treasure & Reflections on Heritage (KwaShandu) /// 19M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Yae: Blind Samurai Woman /// 19M - ACTION, DRAMA - 2021
Voices from Under a Dark Cloud /// 30M - SHORT, DOCUMENTARY - 2022
When the Swallows Fly Away /// 19M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Voices /// 11M - DARK HUMOR, THRILLER - 2022
Uprooted: The Plantemic /// 8M - COMEDY, ANIMATION - 2022
Employee of the Month /// 19M - SHORT - 2022
Granny's Sexual Life /// 14M - ANIMATION, DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Ukutshalwa (The Planting) /// 25M - SHORT, DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Troll Girl /// 9M - SHORT, ANIMATION - 2021
Total Disaster /// 11M - SHORT, DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Lalito 10 /// 17M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Little Sky /// 14M - DRAMA, MUSICAL - 2021
Magdalene's Lies /// 26M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Maverick /// 6M - SHORT - 2021
Meat /// 6M - SHORT - 2021
MIER "The Ant" /// 26M - DRAMA, MYSTERY - 2021
Miette /// 12M - SHORT - 2021
Mother Shoal /// 26M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Nefarious Creatures /// 12M - SHORT - 2021
Oyasumi- Lullaby of Flame /// 7M - ANIMATION, SHORT - 2021
Pango /// 7M - SHORT, DOCUMENTARY - 2020
Perm /// 30M - SHORT - 2021
Pili Ka Moʻo /// 14M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Prayers for Sweet Waters /// 13M - SHORT, DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Queer Parivaar /// 27M - SHORT - 2022
Radio Freedom /// 19M - SHORT - 2021
Retribution /// 22M - SHORT - 2021
Searching Heleny /// 29M - ANIMATION, DOCUMENTARY - 2022
Sixteen Rounds /// 38M - SHORT - 2021
Stranger at the Gate /// 29M - DOCUMENTARY, SHORT - 2021
Supastaz /// 29M - SHORT - 2022
Salvador Dali /// 19M - SHORT - 2021
Sweet Little Despair /// 15M - SHORT - 2021
Tailored /// 3M - SHORT - 2021
The Caretaker /// 24M - SHORT - 2021
The Floating World /// 14M - SHORT - 2021
The Girl Behind the Mirror /// 12M - ANIMATION, SHORT - 2020
The Little Match Girl /// 12M - SHORT - 2021
The Savior /// 15M - SHORT - 2021
The Snake Chief /// 20M - ANIMATION, SHORT - 2022
The Track /// 13M - SHORT - 2021
The Town /// 15M - SHORT - 2020
Time and Tide /// 16M - SHORT - 2021
To Kill the Birds & the Bees /// 11M - ANIMATION, SHORT - 2021
Together /// 6M - SHORT, ANIMATION - 2021
To the Sea /// 25M - SHORT - 2021
The Zoo /// 17M - SHORT - 2022
Too Rough /// 15M - SHORT - 2022


Isiphethu (Isiphethu International Student Film Festival)
The Isiphethu programme is DIFF's programme responsible for community engagement workshops and screenings, a school programme and an IsiZulu Masterclass series. This year the programme also launches the inaugural Isiphethu International Student Film Festival. This festival aims to create a platform and gateway for students to the big festival by exposing them to the role players in the film industry and showcasing their work on big cinema screens. The festival will take place primarily online, with a few selected films to screen at the reception on the 27 July at the Suncoast Cinema. IISFF will be the role player and centre focus on the continent to connect the continent and diaspora.

Isiphethu brings a variety of community engagement workshops at the KZNSA Gallery as well as online, the Isiphethu on Tour, which brings community screenings in places like Wushwini Pan African Art Centre in KwaNgcolosi, KCAP in KwaMashu, Luthuli Museum in Stanger, UBUNTUNest in Howick and Denis Hurley in the heart of Durban city. The school's programme will also take place at the KZNSA Gallery, with over fifty learners taking part in the Media Expo session and the Children's Day Event. The programme will also include the ten-day IsiZulu Masterclass Series with fifteen participants from different parts of the province.

This programme is developmental and training; it also seeks to inform community members about the film industry and empower young people. It has positioned itself as the creative hub for aspirant filmmakers.

Collections
A Narration of a Funeral /// 13M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2021
A Scorned Mother /// 5M - SHORT - 2021
A Woman of No Importance /// 17M - THRILLER, SOCIAL DRAMA - 2021
An Island Drifts /// 18M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2021
Anshan Diaries /// 28M - DOCUMENTARY, FAMILY - 2021
Bianco /// 8M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Calf /// 12M - EXPERIMENTAL, STUDENT - 2021
Darker /// 14M - FANTASY, DRAMA - 2021
Delville Wood /// 25M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2022
Fish Fingers /// 9M - DRAMA, SHORT - 2021
Ghroza /// 2M - MUSIC - 2021
Happy /// 39M - DRAMA, COMEDY - 2022
Headfish /// 24M - SHORT - 2021
His Best Friend /// 15M - DRAMA, SHORT - 2022
Hourglass House /// 21M - EXPERIMENTAL, SHORT - 2021
How Small! /// 7M - FANTASY, DRAMA - 2021
Killing Bagheera /// 13M - DRAMA - 2022
Kopano /// 26M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2022
Lamara /// 16M - DRAMA, FOREIGN LANGUAGE - 2022
Lebone /// 15M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2022
Les Nimbes /// 13M - ART, VIDEO ART - 2022
Love Me Tender /// 15M - DRAMA, LGBT - 2021
Mona & Parviz /// 17M - SHORT, STUDENT - 2021
Naughty Spot /// 19M - LGBTQ, FIRST FILM - 2021
Night Stroll (טיול לילי) /// 23M - EXPERIMENTAL, SHORT - 2022
Nothing To See Here /// 16M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Rasta De Artist /// 9M - DOCUMENTARY - 2021
Red Lines White Lines Fine Lines /// 15M - PSYCHOLOGICAL, EXPERIMENTAL - 2022
Revolt Final /// 13M - ANIMATION - 2022
Sort of Grown Up /// 18M - DOCUMENTARY, STUDENT - 2022
Shared Space /// 8M - EXPERIMENTAL, SHORT - 2022
The Detective /// 5M - ANIMATION - 2021
The Shadow Creatures /// 1M - ANIMATION, EXPERIMENTAL - 2022
Thine Own Self /// 5M - ANIMATION - 2021
Toothless /// 12M - ANIMATION - 2021
Triangle /// 20M - SHORT - 2021
Where is Mr. Adams? /// 24M - SHORT - 2021

The Durban International Film Festival is one of five festivals presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. The other festivals are the Time of the Writer festival, the JOMBA! Dance festival, the Poetry Africa, and Artfluence Human Rights festivals. The Centre for Creative Arts, located in the School of the Arts at the University, is a multi-disciplinary hub that values the power and agency vested in the arts to contribute to social change.

The online festival is free on
www.durbanfilmfest.com

On 21 July, DIFF2022 opens 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 29 July, after film-lovers still have the opportunity to see the film online on 30 July. The awards will also take place virtually on 30 July.
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.
- From Germany hails Black Mambas, directed by Lena Karbe, 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 who 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.
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, let's one in on a story about a fourteen-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.
- 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. Passion and revolution escalate