Current world news is littered with the harsh brutality of the dark side of human nature. The Shorts Programme at the 46th edition of the Durban International Film Festival has not flinched from focusing on these issues, and several of this year’s short films delve deeper and give context to the headlines that blight our society.
Institutional depravity and the failure of safeguarding are explored in the films We Did Not Consent and Flying Carpet. In the first, the shocking revelation that for decades, a secret unit in London’s Metropolitan police infiltrated local activist groups and formed romantic relationships with their targets is revealed. Three of the women personally involved during this time revisit scenes from their lives to reclaim the narrative and make sense of what happened. Another form of abuse, institutionalised paedophilia in Portugal, is unearthed in one of the many true stories found during this devastating investigation. Flying Carpet follows Ricardo, a teenager searching for a way out of a ruthless reality that traps him and everyone around him.
Receiving first prize in the International Competition at Winterthur International Short Film Festival in Switzerland last year, Genealogy of Violence explores the outcome of a random and a routine identity check. A woman watches in dismay as two policemen in an unmarked car methodically pat down her boyfriend as he stands in front of the car, under the dismayed eyes of his girlfriend. The imbalance of power and the brooding potential for violence are threaded through this atmospheric and claustrophobic dissection of a seemingly ordinary encounter.
Power and secrecy are uncovered in Chaudhary Sahab when Chaudhary’s granddaughter discovers that he has betrayed everyone’s trust in the most brutal way. The eponymous antihero of the film is considered by his family to be a pure soul, but he is taking advantage of everyone’s trust as he practises his dark desires in secret. Another patriarch is found fallible in B(l)ind the Sacrifice when a son begins to question his father’s claim that he is able to speak to God directly.
Several films surface the notion of the private being political and interrogate personal freedom and state interference. Working against the system, an impulsive Chinese American 17-year-old and her Iranian American boyfriend search for the Morning After Pill in rural Tennessee in The Truck. A Move follows Elahe’s return to her hometown of Mashhad, Iran. Influenced by the Woman-Life-Freedom movement, she assists her parents in relocating after 40 years. Hoping that the move will signify a broader change beyond the new apartment, the film explores the political reality in Iran through a very personal lens. Fleas highlights a menacing home situation without the possibility of escape. Following a bout of xenophobic attackers, Tonderai, a young Zimbabwean boy living in a South African township, fears the worst as he waits for his mother to return from work. The simple act of fetching water for his gravely ill brother poses a life-or-death risk for him, as he has to venture to the communal amenities to bring his brother safe drinking water.
Two brothers are the focus of Ashes Are Burning. They deliver vegetables in the hills of Córdoba, Argentina, but Bruno, the eldest, wants to leave town. Other films with a focus on young people and their struggles in life include Aicha, where a 17-year-old girl struggles with an emotionally distant mother as her life takes a tragic turn. Yulieth, a brave and rebellious teenage girl from Chilapa, becomes a teenage mother, while her developing identity is caught between the impulses of her dreams and her reality. In Chilapa Girl she faces the difficulty of growing up in a wild territory where natural beauty coexists with the hostility of machismo.
Even younger, 10-year-old Tom finds a family picture, and the fantasy world of childhood seems to vanish before his eyes. He falls back into repressed memories in Frater, which explores the heartrending portrait of the family he once idealised. Brett is another young man left to his own devices in Punter. He navigates the underbelly of the Johannesburg gambling world as a seemingly harmless horse racing bet jeopardises the surprise he has prepared for his father’s birthday. Majonezë reflects on the powerful desire for rebellion, which grows in young Elyria as she plots the fulfilment of a bitter, but necessary, act of revolution. In Grandma Nai Who Played Favourites, it’s Grandma Nai who is surprised and sneaks away from her peaceful afterlife after overhearing that her queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman. While Grandma escapes the afterlife, a screenwriter travels back in time to meet her younger self after suffering a panic attack before an interview in Being You.
The House That Never Sleeps accounts an interview with his idol, aspiring writer Sbu Dludlu grapples with the past and the present as writer Ayanda Mkhize has cloned himself to be able to write and market more of his pulp-fiction books. Another local film, King George, features the controversial and charismatic owner of King George strip club in Lower Woodstock in Cape Town. George Megalos is brought to life on screen after the runaway success of the stage play of the same name. Locals resent George and picket outside his club, believing it tarnishes the neighbourhood’s reputation. However, when property developer Shane Wyntock buys up the block and serves George an eviction notice, George must unite with his club’s eclectic members to save his business. Another awkward neighbourly relationship is explored in Catkiller when Ivan’s cat, Gretel, is attacked, and his neighbour Bear saves her, and an unexpected bond is formed.
Human loss and grief are examined in Dears in the Headlights. Through Philly, a woman whose brother has been killed by a drunk driver and their mother Caro’s advocacy, the film examines the many ways we confront loss. For Philly, taxidermy becomes a way of preserving things that have died, while Caro channels her grief into activism. It is a striking reminder to celebrate life, honour the living, and transform pain into purpose. From the shadows of sorrow, light emerges, guiding us toward healing, hope, and the courage to move forward. The gratitude for an extra lease of life is showcased in Unsavable, when Mauro meets Angel, a stranger whose life he saved.
Familiar with death and the vagaries of human desire, few philosophers have been as insightful about the dark side of the human psyche as Carl Jung. It’s his work that is drawn upon to paint a harrowing portrait of the human condition. Combining poetry, dance, music, and archival audio, Danse Macabre explores the dark and tragic aspects of the conscious and unconscious minds. It explores the parallels between modern psychology, aspects of Yoruba culture, and East Asian understandings around life force and energy. The film is a dissection of performance, synthesising styles from a range of geographies, including references to Yoruba dance, songs and proverbs; contemporary electronic music; Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal; Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique; and the work of Marina Abramovic. Underscoring the film is the wisdom of ancestral memory, depicted via the embodied knowledge of the Yoruba Egúngún masquerade.
There are also lighter moments of celebration on offer. Sporting prowess of an unusual kind is featured in Swim Hard and Memoirs of Amanda. At 74, despite a lifetime of low self-esteem, Amanda sets her sights on a seemingly insurmountable goal – completing the 109 km Cape Town Cycle Tour for the 23rd time. Her commitment and drive are mirrored by a group of dedicated swimmers planning for the 2028 Olympics in Swim Hard.
This year’s programme of short films promises to enlighten, educate and entertain and will introduce some unforgettable characters to audiences. As many of them are real, you may have encounters beyond the screen with them after the festival ends. The short films are a reminder that life is made of moments that, when viewed from a different perspective, can alter our worldview.
AICHA by Sanaa El Alaoui (Morocco)
ASHES ARE BURNING by Lucas Leônidas (Argentina)
BEING YOU by Minenhle Luthuli (South Africa)
CATKILLER by Isabel Vaca, Arturo Mendicuti (Mexico)
CHAUDHARY SAHAB by Amit Pahel (India)
CHILAPA GIRL by Juana Lotero López (Colombia)
DANSE MACABRE by Tobi Onabolu (Benin)
DEARS IN THE HEADLIGHTS by Julia Jansch (South Africa)
DISTANT by Nagbhushan Deshpandey (India)
FLEAS by Jordy Sank (South Africa)
FLYING CARPET by Justin Amorim (Portugal)
FRATER by Valentin Guiod (France)
GENEALOGY OF VIOLENCE by Mohamed Bourouissa (France)
GRANDMA NAI WHO PLAYED FAVORITES by Chheangkea (Cambodia, France, United States)
KING GEORGE by Ari Kruger (South Africa)
MAJONEZË by Giulia Grandinetti (Italy)
MEMOIRS OF AMANDA by Lamar Bryce Bonhomme (South Africa)
PASTA NEGRA by Jorge Thielen Armand (Canada, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela, Bolivaria)
PUNTER by Jason Adam Maselle (South Africa)
SIDE A: A SUMMER DAY by Kin Fai Wan (Taiwan)
SWIM HARD by Mark Penwill (South Africa, United Kingdom)
THE HOUSE THAT NEVER SLEEPS by Sean Mongie (South Africa)
THE TRUCK by Elizabeth Rao (United States)
UNDERCURRENT by Luca Smith (South Africa)
UNSAVABLE by Javier Marco (Spain)
VOX HUMANA by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines)
WE DID NOT CONSENT by Dorothy Allen-Pickard (United Kingdom)