Page 28 - DIFF PROGRAMME 2024

FEATURE FILMS
MASINGA THE CALLING
Mark Anthony Engels, South Africa, 2023, 85 min, English, Zulu with English subtitles
20 JULY 20:00 GATEWAY 9 26 JULY 19:15 GATEWAY 9
African-born, UK-based Interpol inspector Masinga is dispatched to Southern Africa to repatriate a group of Ukrainian teenagers, trafficked by a Russian underworld figure operating in Maputo. While rescuing these teenagers he encounters Xia, a young Asian influencer whose stance against her country’s plundering of Africa’s minerals and wildlife, makes her a prized sacrifice for the nefarious pursuits of the antagonist Jeremiah Mills. One of the central themes is the Asian expansion in Africa at the hands of corrupt government officials who siphon funds. Another is the fictional spiritual journey of the exiled, African detective who returns to Africa to be confronted with his past.
Sylvia is a social worker and single mother who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her thirteen-year sobriety, and her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter profoundly impacts both of them as they open the door to the past. Their contradictory recall of their school days presents a challenge as their relationship stumbles over their memories. Saul’s condition affects his memory of the past but is the distant past closer than the immediate past, and what of the present?
A slacker and her friend are in debt to a very impatient loan shark. They owe him a thousand rand and he has in his possession, her grandmother’s much loved and new television set. Time is against them as they attempt to repay the debt before her grandmother returns from church. With possession nine-tenths of the law, the unscrupulous loan shark is threatening to sell the television to recover his money. Will the loan be repaid and will her unsuspecting grandmother be able to watch her television again?
MEMORY
Michel Franco, USA, Mexico, 2023, 100 min, English
20 JULY 19:30 PAVILION 12 27 JULY 14:30 SUNCOAST 8
MONTH END
Kagiso Samuel Leburu, South Africa, 2023, 83 min, Tswana with English subtitles
20 JULY 17:00 GATEWAY 9 26 JULY 19:30 SUNCOAST 7
26 45TH DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL