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Durban Filmfest Closes Today With The Prophet

By Shaibu Husseini
26 July 2015   |   5:40 am
Nine internationally acclaimed animation directors, including Roger Alllers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Nina Paley and Michal Sosha will take the credit for delivering The Prophet, a powerful animation that will bring the 36th edition of Durban International Film Festival 2015 to a close today.
DIFF3

Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) Director, Mr. Pedro Pimenta (second right) and flanked by DIFF officials including Ms Carol Coetzee (right)

Nine internationally acclaimed animation directors, including Roger Alllers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Nina Paley and Michal Sosha will take the credit for delivering The Prophet, a powerful animation that will bring the 36th edition of Durban International Film Festival 2015 to a close today.

The festival opened in the tourism friendly-city of Durban, South Africa on July 16. It had as opening film Ayanda by Sara Bletcher that stars Nigeria’s OC Ukeje. But the festival closes today after 10 days of screening of diverse films selected from the continent and around the world.

It also includes networking, panel discussions, pitching sessions, workshops, deals at the festival market. But moviegoers will settle down this evening at the Supernova Cinema at Suncoast Cinema Centre beginning at 7pm to a colourful and breathtaking closing which the The Prophet will surely provide.

Inspired by the classic book of the same name by Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet has “chapters” from animation directors from around the world. In the prophet, Almustafa has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship, which will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition.

The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

However, the screening of The Prophet will follow presentation of awards to the best feature film of the festival, the best South African feature, best cinematography, best screenplay, best actress, best actor and production merit award.

There was also presentation to the best documentary film, best South African documentary, best South African short film and audience choice award. A large delegation of Nigerian celebrities but mainly screen acting celebrities and filmmakers arrived Durban only on Thursday for the festival and it was unclear what they had come to do as a few screenings and the closing ceremony are outstanding events left.

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