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The Gentleman heads for Zanzibar festival

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The Zimbabwean film industry keeps scaling to greater heights, as evidenced by the screening of local films at festivals all over the world. A number of local films have made it to prestigious festival and among them is Joe Njagu’s The Gentleman, set to be screened at the forthcoming Zanzibar Film Festival (ZFF) that runs […]

The Zimbabwean film industry keeps scaling to greater heights, as evidenced by the screening of local films at festivals all over the world.

A number of local films have made it to prestigious festival and among them is Joe Njagu’s The Gentleman, set to be screened at the forthcoming Zanzibar Film Festival (ZFF) that runs between July 7 and 15.

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nyaminyami and the Evil Eggs will be shown at the fifth Samsung Women’s International Film Festival scheduled for Inkor Centre in India, this July and later Durban International Film Festival (Diff) in South Africa.

The Gentleman will be screened on the first day of the festival at Old Fort in Zanzibar.

The ZFF is one of the most prestigious film festivals in Africa along with Festival Panafricain du Cinéma de Ouagadougou/Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) and Diff. Producer of The Gentlemen, Rufaro Kaseke, said it was an honour to represent the country at such a level.

“This is not the first time that we have achieved such a feat. We recently went to the American Film Festival and this latest achievement is ample evidence that we are in the right direction,” said Kaseke.

“The organisers of the festival were impressed by the use of multiple languages and of course the production standards.”

The Gentleman recently premiered in London while its writer and director Njagu was awarded for his efforts.

The film won an award early this year at the American Film Festival for the best foreign language film.

Dangarembga’s Nyaminyami and the Evil Eggs is still fresh from April screenings in Milan, Italy. The film is based on Tonga legends about the mystical river goddess Nyaminyami believed to live in the Zambezi River.

From India, the short film moves on to the Diff, from July 19 to 29 in the South African city of Durban.

The 2012 festival will present around 200 screenings across a variety of venues that provide high-profile screening platforms.

Dangarembga said the new position would afford her an opportunity to prove that Zimbabwean film expertise is competitive.

“It is also a chance to gather first-hand information on new trends that I can share with the sector, as well as networking with international players,” she said.