Film festival ‘cycles south’ to visit Sheppie

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) will host the Durban International Festival (DIFF) from September 10 to 20 this year.

The Road Less Cycled will be screened at Port Shepstone Country Club on Tuesday, September 15 at 6.30pm.

It’s a 90-minute film by South Africa’s Nathan Rice, in isiZulu with English subtitles.

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Set in a small rural town in KwaZulu-Natal, Philani (27), played by John Hlongwane, works a dead-end job, living in the shadow of his brother who’s a professional soccer player.

Philani draws the attention of a professional cycling team, and is offered the opportunity to join them at a race about 300km away.

With no means of getting there on his own and no resources, it’s inevitable that he has to find a bicycle and ride there himself.

He steals his boss’s bike and rides off alone, against the advice of his widowed mother.

Philani goes through many trials during his four-day journey, having to find places to stay overnight and hustle for food.

Everywhere he goes, he rejects people’s help until his false sense of pride leads him into a situation he can’t get himself out of.

Now celebrating its landmark 41st year, this prestigious South African international film festival is a unique phenomenon on the African cultural calendar.

This year the festival will screen selected films, host seminars and workshops virtually and include drive-in cinema screenings in Durban, Port Shepstone, Newcastle and Zululand.

As a festival, the DIFF prides itself on inclusivity and a celebration of diversity as is shown by the riveting selection of films, which has been curated by a small group of talented and diverse individuals, headed by DIFF head of programming, Chipo Zhou.

Community film screenings, school programmes and engagements with various community organisations around KwaZulu-Natal will be the pulse of this year’s isiPhethu industry-focused programme at DIFF.

The isiPhethu programme remains a backbone of DIFF and acts as a centre stage for the industry role players to showcase their work, talents, and network in the film industry.

The vibrant programme aims to entertain, educate, train and up-skill, instil confidence in young aspirant film-makers and share information that is relevant to the film industry to empower young people.

A range of top facilitators, guest speakers and participants will be featured.

They will headline several of these programmes as the DIFF continues to position itself as one of the biggest and most significant festivals on the continent.

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