by Marianne Gray
It's that wonderful time of year when London is ablaze with films and celebrities pop up all over the place. Like last year, there are three South African feature films at this year's BFI London Film Festival, plus a short in the African First Shorts section.
The three features are Felix, a drama about a Zulu boy who wants to become a jazz musician, Of Good Report, about a paedophile school teacher, that was banned on the night of its opening screening at the Durban International Film Festival, and Durban Poison, dubbed the South African Bonnie and Clyde.
The short is Security, as part of the Africa First Shorts section, about a lonely security guard in a Johannesburg shopping mall who finds solace in a storefront mannequin. Directed by Mark Middlewick, it is 15 minutes long.
In Felix, 14-year-old Felix Xaba dreams of becoming a saxophonist like his late father, but his mother Lindiwe thinks jazz is the devil's music.
When Felix leaves his township friends to take up a scholarship for grade eight at an elitist private school, he defies his mother and turns to two ageing members of his father's old band to help him prepare for the school jazz concert.
Newcomer Hlayani Junior Mabasa plays Felix, Linda Sokhulu (Isidingo, Generations) is his mother and Dame Janet Suzman his teacher.
I play Felix's favourite teacher, Mrs Cartwright, says Suzman. I've always thought that teaching was an underrated and very important profession. With luck you can remember having a good teacher on your side at school, who made a difference in your life.
Says Felix director Roberta Durrant, The programmer saw the film at Durban International Film Festival, where we won the Audience Award for Best Film, and called me about the wonderful audience response. Being selected for Britain's premier film festival is a huge honour and hopefully we'll be able to announce a cinema release in London soon.
Felix has also been selected for three other major international film festivals: Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada and Lucas International Children's Film Festival and The Hamburg FilmFest in Germany.
Of Good Report is shot in black and white with crisp direction by Jahmil XT Qubeka. Mothusi Magano plays a newly recruited high school teacher seemingly of good report'. He meets the sexually charged Nolitha (played by Petronella Tshuma) at a local bar but only later, after a brief sexual encounter, finds out that she is an under-age pupil in his class. Obsession follows. It's a provocative film, almost too strong for the South African censorship board who were thrown into a panic at its world premiere earlier this year.
Only the festival director and film's director had been informed about the censors, the producer Mike Auret tells me. We decided to get the audience in and put the censor's letter on screen. It caused an outcry and there was coverage worldwide including CNN and BBC. We appealed the banning, which was nonsensical in terms of the South African constitution. We won the appeal ten days later and the film began its journey.
The film is travelling worldwide, is in competition in the London Film Festival and will open the Film Africa Festival at the Hackney Picturehouse in London on 1 November.
Durban Poison is a moody and touching noir romance set amongst the country's marginalised white underclass made by writer/director Andrew Worsdale.
Written 27 years after Worsdale's controversial UCLA thesis film Shot Down was banned in South Africa and went on to festival acclaim becoming South Africa's definitive cult film of the 1980s' Worsdale returns with this road movie inspired by a true story of a pair of outlaw KwaZulu-Natal lovers.
Joline is a 20-year-old streetwalker and party hostess, who comes from a background that has made her tougher than any man. Sexy and manipulative, she gets anything she wants. Her lover is Piet, a 38-year-old construction worker. Hardened after a third of his life spent behind bars, he's a loser, maybe even weak, but filled with a bravado that makes him behave like a real underworld king.
Durban Poison won the Audience prize at Durban International Film Festival. Cara Roberts and Brandon Auret star.
This selection of films, comments Keith Shiri, the person who selects the African films that show at the LFF, how South African films are shaping up on the international market. For those who have been anticipating original and satisfying cinema from South Africa for a very long time, the wait is over.
Adds Tendeka Matatu, one of the most international of South African producers, It is great that there is such a strong selection of South African cinema this year and that Of Good Report is in main competition.'
The London Film Festival runs from 9 to 20 October.
Screenings:
*Felix is screened on Sat 19 October at15.30 at NFT2
*Of Good Report is screened in competition on Sun 13 October at 12.00 at OWE2, Mon 14th at 20.45 at Vue 5 and Tues 15 October at 18.15 at Ritzy
*Durban Poison is screened on Thurs 10 October at 20.45 at Ritzy and Fri 11 October at 18.15 at Hackney Picturehouse 1
*Security is screened on Wed 9 October at 20.45 at ICA and Sat 12 October at 15.30 at Renoir.
Festival programme and tickets : www.bfi/org.uk/lff
Tel 020 7928 3232
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by Marianne Gray
