danie

29 July: Day 5

Day 5 was a great day with outstanding movies, a nice chat with the manager of the festival and a sold out premiere!
The source (La source des femmes) is a fantastic film, fresh from its debut at Cannes.
It's set in North Africa or the Middle East in a very conservative society and it must have rocked the boat of the Muslim community when it was released.
I've never seen a film set in such a society that dares to talk about sex so openly.
In the film, the women of the vilage start a love strike until the men help them fetch water on a mountain or at least engage the government to give them running water and there's even talk about orgasms and sex shown!
It must be one of the bravest films I've ever seen. Imagine what will happen if a South African community starts a love strike to get potholes fixed.
I loved everything about this film -  great story, great characters, great photography, great music. There is another screening at 15:45 on 31 July at Suncoast. Try to catch it.
I was supposed to see 31 million reasons, which was the premiere of the SA crime thriller and it was sold out.
In fact, the follow-up screening on 30 July is also sold out. That means no 31 million reasons for me...
I was looking forward to this crime drama set in Durban with a Bollywood twist. Maybe it will get released on the circuit at a later stage.
I had a wonderful chat with Nashen Moodley, manager of the festival, who told me some of the mechanisms of organising the festival and how they tried to show Senna at the festival but just couldn't get it.
It was also too quick after Cannes to show Lars von Trier's Le Havre.
He, however, is very proud of the line-up and the attendances are up - proven by the sold out premiere of 31 million reasons.
My second film of the night, Small town murder songs, the Canadian film by Ed Gass-Donnelly, opens with a Christening of the local sheriff and follows his life where a murder rocks the small Ontario community.
I loved this Gothic masterpiece and the performances are so believable. They don't seem to be acting at all!
The film seethes with darkness and beauty in its exploration of the possibilities of redemption. The soundtrack of gospel rock is also breathtaking.
The weekend has arrived with lots of wonderful films.
My line-up is something to behold - Memories in March, Play, Midnight in Paris (the closing film), The terrorists (poo kor karn rai) and tomorrow (Sunday) will take me to Position among the stars, Cannes favourite Circumstance and Black Butterflies, the Dutch film about SA poet Indrid Jonker.
I hope those who read this will be inspired to support their local festivals and see films that are not shown at local multiplexes.