The landmark 30th Durban International Film Festival will bring together films and filmmakers from all over the world in a celebration of the diversity and magic of cinema.

For eleven days Durban will be dominated by cinema as the festival features 137 films presented over more than 200 screenings at venues across the city. While the selection of fascinating, passionate and entertaining films from all over the world will form the centre of the festival, an extensive workshop and seminar programme – this year based at the Royal Hotel - will prime a new generation of South African filmmakers. This includes the second Talent Campus Durban, which brings together young filmmakers from all over the African continent for an intensive five-day workshop programme.

Fittingly, the 30th edition of the festival will open with the Durban film, My Secret Sky (Izulu Lami), directed by Madoda Ncayiyana, and featuring a wonderful cast of child actors who have never performed for the screen before.

The festival will close with Woody Allen’s hilarious Whatever Works, which stars Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood. In between these two great films, audiences will encounter some of the year’s most eagerly-anticipated films, award-winners from major festivals, and world premieres from South Africa and beyond.

World premieres of South African feature films include Shirley Adams by the extremely talented young director Oliver Hermanus; Long Street, the new film from Revel Fox which features the Durban icon, Busi Mhlongo; and For Better For Worse, Naresh Veeran and Raeesa Mahomed’s charming Durban-set romantic comedy. Other South African films include Anthony Fabian’s Skin, based on the true story of a physically black girl born to white parents in apartheid South Africa; Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace, based on JM Coetzee’s novel; Savo Tufedgzic’s psychological thriller Crime - It’s A Way Of Life, and JJ Van Rensburg’s coming ofage sports drama, Intonga.

In one of the most talked about films of the year, Eric Cantona gives a charming performance in Ken Loach’s hilarious and touching Looking For Eric, which makes its African premiere at the festival. An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by the popular British novelist, Nick Hornby, is a joyous and funny drama. Fresh from its Camera d’Or win in Cannes, Australian Warwick Thornton’s Samson & Delilah also makes its African debut at the festival. Iconic actors Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate co-star in Rachid Bouchareb’s deeply moving London River, which is set in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in London. Audrey Tautou gives a star turn in Anne Fontaine’s sumptuous Coco Before Chanel, which looks at the life of the fashion legend.

The festival will once again present a selection of films by the world’s most prominent and important directors. Famed directors include Steven Soderbergh (Che), Takeshi Kitano (Achilles and the Tortoise), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Three Monkeys), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Still Walking), Rituparno Ghosh (After Words, a DIFF world premiere), Tunde Kelani (Arugba), Laurent Cantet (the Palme d’Or winner, The Class), Kim Jee-woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird), Deepa Mehta (Heaven On Earth), Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo), Priyadarshan (Kanchivaram), the Dardenne brothers (Lorna’s Silence) and Philippe Lioret (Welcome).

Alongside these experienced filmmakers, DIFF 2009 will introduce South African audiences to a number of new talents – the next generation of auteurs. New filmmakers featured in the selection include the acclaimed Indian actress Nandita Das, who makes her directorial debut with Firaaq, which takes an honest look at religious division and violence in India. Others include Mama Keïta (The Absence), Ramtin Lavafipour (Be Calm And Count To Seven), Edwin (Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly), Eugenie Jansen (Calimucho), Satish Manwar (The Damned Rain), Shashanka Ghosh (Quick Gun Murugan), Wanuri Kahiu (From A Whisper), Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (Helen), Uberto Pasolini (Machan), Leon Dai (No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti) and So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain).

Aside from the strong representation of South African cinema, DIFF will focus on the cinemas of France, India and Palestine. In an impressive year for Palestinian cinema, the festival will present three very different and very powerful films: Najwa Najjar’s Pomegranates And Myrrh, Annermarie Jacir’s Salt Of This Sea and Rashid Masharawi’s Laila’s Birthday. Of the forty-two documentaries in this year’s DIFF, twenty-one are from or in co-production with South Africa, and eight are from or in co production with the following African countries: Cameroon, Egypt, Mozambique, Rwanda, Reunion, Senegal, Swaziland, and Tanzania. Politics and history feature prominently. Iseta - Beyond the Roadblock covers the return to Rwanda of the filmmaker who shot the only known footage of killings during the genocide. Zola Maseko explores ancient African civilization in The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, while the resurgence of tribalism in contemporary South Africa is dissected by Ntokozo Mahlalela in Tribes and Clans. The story of South African artistic icon Dumile Feni comes to life in the world premiere of Ramadan Suleman’s Zwelidumile.

The world premiere of South Africa’s Craig and Damon Foster’s Ice Man, about Lewis Pugh, who swims the polar regions to highlight the impending climate catastrophe, forms a Foster brothers’ double header with their Nature of Life in DIFF’s Eco-Lens section. Poison Fire promotes the fight for rights and compensation from polluting oil companies in the Niger Delta. Shannon Walsh’s H2Oil shows how the world’s largest oil development is destroying vast water sources in North America. Saving Luna shows the amazing story of a young Orca who befriends humans and stirs up debate about whether to interfere with the course of nature or not.

The Hawk Takes One Chick features cinematography by 2008 DIFF documentary winner Karin Slater. Vukuzake – Arise and Build Yourself shows edutainment intervention in rural KZN, while KZN social workers and abused children feature in Kim Longinotto’s Sundance winning Rough Aunties.

Sports stories include the eponymous world champion heavyweight boxer in Tyson; the “hand of God” soccer luminary in Maradona by Kusturica; and our own Mr. Universe in South Africa’sReg Park: The Legend, directed by Richard Nosworthy.

Lloyd Ross’s world premiere of Silver Fez has music as a cohesive community force amid intense rivalry between groups on the Cape Flats. Other music docs include Roger Lucey’s inspiring look at how opera is being taken up by African youth in Aria Del Africa; Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love, about the controversy stirred up by N’dour’s overtly Muslim religious album Egypt; and Intangible Asset No. 82, which follows an Australian jazz muso in search of a shamanic Korean master musician.

Jean-Marie Teno’s Sacred Places and Francois Verster’s Sea Point Days are both poetic and personal reflections. Sundance favourite Nollywood Babylon shows the stars of Nigerian cinema at workm

South highlights design and creativity in South Africa. The September Issue is revealing insight into the fashion industry through inside stories at Vogue magazine. The Yes Men Fix the World tackles corporate greed and hypocrisy with head on humour.

DIFF also presents over 70 short films, which includes a stellar selection of South African productions from Akin Omotoso, Admiral Kasrils, and the hot AFDA crop of emerging filmmakers. Principal screening venues are the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre; Nu Metro Cinecentre - Suncoast; Ster Kinekor Junction - Musgrave, Cinema Nouveau - Gateway; Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre in KwaMashu; and The Royal Hotel, with further screenings in township areas where cinemas are non-existent.

Programme booklets with the full screening schedule and synopses of all the films are available free at cinemas, Computicket, and other outlets. Call 031 2602506 or 031 2601650 for further details.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN), the principal funders of the 30th Durban International Film Festival are the National Film and Video Foundation, Stichting Doen, Hivos, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, German Embassy, Goethe Institute, City of Durban, and the Industrial Development Corporation, with support from East Coast Radio and other valued sponsors and partners.

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