Sex worker film Tess the major winner at the Durban International Film Festival
|||LATOYA NEWMAN
THE 37th edition of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) came to a close at the weekend, with the official Awards ceremony held at the Playhouse on Saturday.
Walking off with three awards - Best South African Feature Film, Best Actress and Best Editing – Tess was undoubtedly a hot topic for the evening. The film is a hard-hitting drama based on Tracey Farren’s award winning novel Whiplash and follows the story of Tess, a Muizenberg sex worker whose life is turned upside down when she falls pregnant, and has to fight to stop her past from swallowing her whole.
Receiving the awards director Meg Rickards thanked the team that worked on the project and said: “I want this film to be seen by as many people as possible and devote it to all women and children in this country who are being abused on a daily basis. I was asked the other day, why did I make this film. I said it was out of fury, absolute fury with the situation.”
Rickards collected the Best Actress Award on behalf of lead actress Christia Visser and Best Editing Award on behalf of Linda Man. Receiving Visser’s award she said: “I am so happy for her… She was so courageous, so honest. It was a very hard role…”
The award for the Best Feature Film went to The Violin Player directed by Bauddhayan Mukherji.
The jury’s citation said: “A seductive and mysterious tale of a violin player’s mundane life and an interesting take on how chance encounters are almost predestined. By successfully weaving offbeat editing, brave cinematography, simple screenplay, honest direction and a lot of surprising elements, the film shows us that art, no matter how unimportant it may seem, can change people’s lives.”
The Best SA Documentary Award went to The Journeymen, directed by Sean Metelerkamp. The doccie is set in 2014, the year in which South Africa celebrated 20 years of democracy and chronicles the journey of three South African photographers - Metelerkamp, Sipho Mpongo and Wikus De Wet - across the country with GoPro cameras strapped to their chests. It offers up a snapshot of South Africa today in all its rawness, through her people. The documentary exposes a mix of situations in the country some alarming, some beautiful, some strangely weird but most of all very thought provoking.
Receiving the award Metelerkamp said: “Thanks to the producers and executive producers for enabling me to go through all the footage and find a film in there. Thank you to DIFF for opening with The Journeymen on Youth Day (June 16) and thank you to Sipho and Wik, my fellow journeymen, for travelling the country for seven months with me and telling this beautiful story.”
The citation from the jurors said “The Journeymen takes an unflinching look at who we are by holding up the proverbial mirror to South African society. The honesty, bravery and commitment of the film crew results in a mosaic picture of our country with warts and all. This is strong and uncompromising cinema that is simultaneously disturbing and life-affirming.”
On lighter note, at awards evening director Gabriel Mascaro – who received the Artistic Bravery Award for his film Neon Bull (for its unique portrayal of a little-known community of Brazilian Rodeo workers) – shared his “strange” non-festival experience: “I had a very strange experience. I couldn’t come to the festival because of my Yellow Fever vaccine, so I just landed today (on Awards night). I hope to come back another year. Thank you… This is a very kind award.”
Here’s a glance some of the other winners for this year: Best Documentary - Martha and Niki directed by Tora Mkandawire Martens, special mention of Action Commandante (by Nadine Cloete) in this category.
Best Short Film went to Grandma's Day (Dzie'n Babci) directed by Milosz Sakowski, with special mention in this category of the film Ave Maria directed by Basil Khalil. The Best African Short Film Award went to New Eyes directed by Hiwot Admasu.
eKhaya (Home), directed by Shubham Mehta won the Best South African Short Film award. Special mention was made of Amagugu directed by Ndududo Shandu and Discovery of Fire directed by Gerhard Pretorius.
The Best Actor Award went to Mohsen Namjoo for his performance in Radio Dream, directed by Babak Jalali. The awards for Best Direction went to Ciro Guerra for Embrace Of The Serpent, Best Cinematography to Chris Lotz for The Endless River and Best Screenplay went to Ciro Guerra and Thoedor Koch-Grunberg for Embrace of The Serpent.
The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award for the film that best reflects human rights issues went to Noma, directed by Pablo Pineda.
The audience choice awards for DIFF and for the Wavescape Film Festival was to be announced on yesterday (SUBS: Monday, 27 June). It had not been made at the time of going to print.
*For more information go to www.durbanfilmfest.co.za
See the tomorrow’s edition of Tonight (Durban and Cape Town only) for an exclusive interview with actorAntonio Lyons.