Videovision Entertainment announced on Wednesday that it will premiere six films at the 36th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF 2015), which takes place from July 16 to 26.
According to a statement from Sharlene Versfeld of Versfeld & Associates, the films, which will all have either South African and African premieres at the festival, are ‘Wolf Totem’, Khalil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’, ‘Strangerland’, ‘Mommy’, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘White Bird in a Blizzard’.
“Of particular significance for Durban, is the attendance of the award winning director Jean-Jacques Annaud at the African premiere of his visually spectacular film ‘Wolf Totem’ on July 20 and the selection of the animated adaptation of Khalil Gibran’s seminal work, ‘The Prophet’ directed by Roger Allers, as the closing night film of the festival.”
The much-lauded Wolf Totem by the celebrated, award-winning French director Jean-Jacques Annaud is a visually beautiful adaptation of the Chinese best-seller by Jiang Rong.
Inspired by the beloved classic ‘Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet’, the film is a richly-animated tale of an unlikely friendship between a young, mischievous girl and an imprisoned poet.
‘White Bird in a Blizzard’ directed by Gregg Araki (‘Mysterious Skin’), stars Shailene Woodley, Eva Green and Angela Bassett. This dramatic thriller, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has been described as sexy and haunting, tells the story of a young woman discovering her own sexuality when her mother mysteriously disappears.
The multi award-winning, ‘Mommy’, by acclaimed director Xavier Dolan (‘Heartbeats’, ‘Tom at the Farm’), had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
‘Strangerland’ directed by Kim Farrant starring Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and Joseph Fiennes, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is about a family that finds their dull life in a rural outback town rocked after their two teenage children disappear into the desert, sparking disturbing rumours of their past.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s drama romance, ‘Coming Home’, which was in the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection, is an epic story of love and loss.
The 36th Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (a special project of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the College of Humanities, Cheryl Potgieter) with support from KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development & Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission, City of Durban, German Embassy, Goethe Institut, Industrial Development Corporation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture and a range of other valued partners.