DIFF to showcase Indian films
The festival is on until 26 July at 13 venues across Durban, and features over 255 screenings.
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) 2015 opened on Thursday and the diverse line-up of films from around the globe is bound to capture an equally diverse audience. The festival, which takes place from 16 to 26 July at 13 venues across Durban, features over 255 screenings and includes a number of films from the Indian sub-continent as well as films from the diaspora.
Sunrise, a feature film directed by celebrated Indian director, Partho Sen-Gupta, and set in Mumbai, tells a story of Joshi, a policeman who lost his six-year-old daughter, Aruna, ten years previous. The film exposes the sad lives of young girls who have been trafficked and the constant quest by policemen to stop such crimes.
New York and Mumbai-based independent filmmaker and producer, Shrihari Sathe’s 1 000 Rupee Note is a film that encapsulates the isolated political issues in rural India. The story is of Budhi, a poor, old widow and mother who receives a gift of several 1 000 Rupee notes from a politician during a political rally in a small village in Maharashtra, central India. 1 000 Rupee Note is a narrative of a passive character that speaks to the broader concerns of Indian rural society – a society that is in a perpetual state of waiting for something to happen to them, just as Budhi does.
Tigers, directed by Oscar and Golden Globe award-winning director, Danis Tanovic, is about two filmmakers wanting to expose the dark and unscrupulous methods used by a multinational corporation in manufacturing infant milk formula. Many babies die after consuming the formula and doctors blame the salesman, named Ayan. Ayan quits his job with a determination to reveal the scandal behind the corporation’s infant milk formula.
The documentary, Indians Can’t Fly, directed by Enver Samuel, is a celebratory documentary about South African anti-apartheid activist, Ahmed Timol, who died in 1971 after being thrown from the 10th floor of the John Vorster Square Police Station. The documentary is narrated by Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee, author of Timol: Quest for Justice.
The Fall of Ganesh, a short film directed and written by Sheetal Megan, tells the story of a troubled Mira hosting a Diwali dinner in order to announce her engagement to her boyfriend, Sizwe, only to discover that this raises unspoken conflicts between herself and her father. Their dispute is overshadowed by a violent confrontation with the neighbours as the night ends in fireworks.
