Fire & Faith | B(l)ind the Sacrifice review
By Tshi Malatji B(l)ind the Sacrifice is Nkhane’s symbolic short film about queer identity in South Africa, how it intersects with religion, culture and family in Black communities. It retells The Sacrifice of Isaac from Genesis, with a twist at the end. Identity is depicted as a suppression, a suggestion, a secret. The characters are […]
Inside DIFF: A Conversation with Festival Manager Andrea Voges
By Alice Johnson With the 46th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) fast approaching, Festival Manager and Head of Programming Andrea Voges offered an in-depth look at what keeps Southern Africa’s oldest Oscar-qualifying event both resilient and provocative. Drawing on nearly two decades in festival curation and arts management, Voges spoke about DIFF’s post-pandemic recovery, this […]
Film Review: The House That Never Sleeps, when passion becomes performance
Directed by Sean Mongie There are films that entertain, and there are films that interrogate the very act of creation. The House That Never Sleeps is the latter. A high-concept fever dream of identity, authorship, and artistic sacrifice, wrapped in a slow-burning psychological sci-fi. At the centre is Ayanda Mkhize, a pulp-fiction writer in his […]
Film Review: The Ants, the moral cost of survival
Directed by Yassine Fennane In The Ants, Moroccan filmmaker Yassine Fennane weaves three quietly devastating stories into a single, haunting reflection on migration, dignity, and the quiet ambitions that carry us forward, even when the path is crumbling beneath our feet. This film begins quietly, even cautiously, it doesn’t grab you by the collar. But […]
Film Review: Lucky Fish, an unexpected feel-good gem
Directed by Joshua Rous In Lucky Fish, sardines and sequins collide in the most unexpected feel-good gem of the year. Joshua Rous, a filmmaker known for wearing many hats: director, writer, producer and editor brings us a delightfully corny yet emotionally honest tale about beauty, sacrifice, and the ‘peculiar’ power of pageantry. The premise alone […]
Amazeze—What Jordy Sank’s film teaches us about the violence of dehumanisation.
by Riley Hlatshwayo June 11th, 2025 Jordy Sank’s short film, Fleas, does not only shed light on the country’s xenophobia and consequent obsession with the persecution of foreign immigrants, but also how dehumanisation breeds the ground for unchecked violence. The film tells the story of two Zimbabwean brothers, Tonderai and Panashe, who live in a […]
Film Review: Fleas, xenophobia, poverty and childhood resilience
Directed by Jordy Sank Fleas is the kind of short film that grabs you by the chest and doesn’t let go, not during its runtime, not after the credits. Directed with razor-sharp tension by Wayne Thornley, the film follows Tonderai, a young Zimbabwean boy navigating fear, responsibility, and survival in the heart of a South […]
Film Review: Dears in the Headlights, the paths to healing
Directed by Julia Jansch In Dears in the Headlights, director Julia Jansch crafts a film that is as tender as it is unsettling. What begins as a meditation on roadkill becomes a layered exploration of grief, transformation, and dignity, both human and animal. The subject of this haunting short is Philli, a young woman who […]
Aicha—A dance of juxtapositions and metaphysics.
The film opens with the most basic example of juxtapositions: life and death. A human child is born at the exact time a baby lamb dies. Something so simple, yet layered in such a manner that it reverberates throughout the narrative and disrupts the metaphysics of the entire story. In Moroccan folklore, Aicha Kandicha is […]
Echoes of Exile: A Daughter’s Tribute to Lauretta Ngcobo
By Mohamed Sayed Abdel Rehim “And She Didn’t Die” is a poignant feature documentary directed by Kethiwe Ngcobo. The film delves into the life of South African writer and activist Lauretta Ngcobo, offering an intimate portrayal of her struggles and triumphs during the apartheid era. Through a blend of archival footage, dramatized scenes, and personal […]
