TWO major South African films have recently wrapped up production in Durban. The film production was made possible by the support from the eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Film Office and the KZN Film Commission. The first, a comedy, Keeping up with the Kandasamys is directed by Jayan Moodley, produced by Junaid Ahmed and Helena Spring and is described as a “love letter to Chatsworth”.
Filmed on location in Chatsworth, the film stars Jailoshni Naidoo and Maeshni Naicker as the matriarchal rivals of neighbouring families, whose young adult children become romantically involved, and despite their best efforts to keep them apart, with hilarious results, they are forced to acknowledge that in the end “love will always prevail.”
“It has been amazing working for the first time very earnestly in the heart of the iconic Durban suburb of Chatsworth with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies and fascinating people,” said Ahmed.
Keeping up with the Kandasamys is set for nationwide cinema release in March 2017.
The other film, 28s’ is a gritty exposé of life inside a South African prison, directed by award-winning director, Khalo Matabane and produced by Carolyn Carew and Tsholo Mashile with executive producers VideoVision Entertainment. The film, inspired by Jonny Steinberg’s award-winning non-fiction novel, The Number, with big screen adaptation by Paul Ian Johnson reveals the origins of the fearsome numbers gangs that operate in prisons throughout South Africa.
It features Mothusi Magano and is supported by Warren Masemola, Sihle Xaba, Presley Chwenegyagae, Lemogang Tsipa, Kevin Smith, Deon Lotz and Gcina Mhlophe. “It was a great experience to work in Durban, a city I have wanted to make a film in for a long time. The potential to create Durban as the next big production centre is enormous: it has wonderful locations, actors and crew,” said producer Carolyn Carew.
