danie's blog

My fifth and last day at the cinematic wonderland that is DIFF consisted of three
documentaries.
The films are very diverse - two were made by Western filmmakers and the third one is
by an Iranian who was stopped from filming his latest film and this doccie was smuggled
out of Iran on a flash drive hidden in a cake!
I kicked off my day with Semisweet: Life in chocolate that focuses on 4 different stories
about chocolate - the top chocolatier in France, a spiritual couple's chocolates from
Canada, the story of Hershey and cocoa producing in the Ivory Coast. The doccie offers
serious food for thought. I also had lunch with the director, Lalita Krishna, afterwards
where she told me it was her doccie's first screening after Toronto where it premiered. I
give the film an 8.
I spent the afternoon away from movies and visited the tranquil Holocaust Centre, where
I couldn't help thinking about the superb 5 Broken Cameras that I saw on Monday..
The night session started with This is not a film where the Iranian director Jafar Panahi
was awaiting his fate of maybe going to jail for speaking out against the regime. In the
very personal doccie he reads his banned script to the camera. I give the film a 9. The
documentary has another screening at Sneddon on 28 July.
The breathtaking The art of flight was my last film of DIFF 2012. This snowcross
spectacular took my breath away. Apparently it was shown at Cannes in 3D and I would
have loved to see it in Durban in that format. It was also sold out. This trance infused
adrenaline feast scores a 9.
The festival will conclude on 29 July and some of the other cinematic highlights coming
up are Cannes winners Goodbye by Mohammed Rasoulof and The Kid with a bike, To
Rome with love, Trishna and the closing film, SA's first 3D film titled Adventures in
Zambesia.
The prizes will be announced on 28 July and they will be published on my blog.
Au revoir till 2013