It's a festival celebrating the diversity of culture and freedom of expression, where all South Africans can let their hair down and explore a world of film that is different, provocative and highly entertaining.
Based on Isherwood's controversial Berlin diaries, and his novel Goodbye Berlin, Christopher and His Kind is an idyllic and romantic trip into the wild and raucous adventures of a young English writer (a haunting performance by Matt Smith) who escapes from the starchiness of his domineering mother and the greyness of 1930s' Britain to join his friend and sometime lover WH Auden in Berlin (a delightful performance from Pip Carter, who superbly captures the essence of a spoilt brat whose affluent lifestyle and outspoken nature reflects the world that attracted Isherwood).
Playwright Kevin Elyot (who wrote the glorious My Night With Reg), wrote the screenplay and his telling is as fresh as the films that first introduced us to the story: I Am a Camera and Bob Fosse's great Cabaret - not forgetting the lush Broadway musical.
Christopher in His Kind kicks off in 1976, with Isherwood writing his memoirs, taking to Berlin in the 30s where he was introduced to a different world; two things were going on in Berlin during that era: firstly, it was the sex-tourism capital of Europe, a paradise of hedonism particularly favoured by gay young English gentlemen of a literary persuasion, and, secondly, Nazism was gathering momentum.
When he arrives at the train station, unlike Harry Potter and his friends who step into an altered reality, Christopher (very much like Alice in Wonderland), is lured into the dark tunnels where he is seduced into the magical realm of "The Cosy Corner", a secretive and notorious gay nightclub.
Although he is amused, he is quickly reminded that the parade of muscly studs "don't bite", unless "he wants them to" and that they are very accommodating if "he gives them cash".
Isherwood is soon trapped in a world of mendacity, where he is warned against the "pitfalls of loving a prostitute, that it is not possible to have affairs with one's intellectual and social equals, and that he has to deal with the 'messy business' of politics and living".
It is also here where he meets larger-than-life actress and cabaret singer Jean Ross, who he immortalised as Sally Bowles (a brilliant performance by Imogen Poots), whose cabaret songs brilliantly reflect Isherwood's inner turmoil and quest for falling in love and finding an ideal lover. There's also the seedy and perverse Gerald Hamilton, with Toby Jones delivering a memorable performance as an older man trying to regain his youth.
"There's always the dark side of every dream, when idyllic bliss turns into a nightmarish dream," is what Isherwood learns through his love affair with Caspar (who exchanges affection for the cash he is paid), and his relationship with an innocent street sweeper.
If you are looking for a well-crafted film that will transport you to a different world, Christopher and His Kind is guaranteed to provide food for thought.
Rating 4/5
Albert Nobbs will have its African première at the festival, with Glenn Close playing a woman posing as a man in order to work and survive in 19th-century Ireland. The festival will play host to three international guests alongside one of their strongest programmes yet: lead actress and producer Dreya Weber will present A Marine Story, a timely reminder of the US military's invidious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which caused extraordinary damage to thousands of soldiers before being overturned in September 2011; Swedish actor and producer Josefine Tengblad will present Kyss Mig (Kiss Me); and Belgian director Bavo Defurne will present screenings of his film North Sea Texas, a subtle, nuanced and satisfying coming-of-age, boy-next-door love story. Soweto-born Fanney Tsimong is also a guest of the festival as the writer and director of The Secret (Imfhilo), a contemporary humour-filled story about a married man in denial.
Other highlights include the award-winning, wickedly funny British film 9 Dead Gay Guys, the award-winning Chilean My Last Round, an exquisite South American sleeper in the fashion of the runaway hit Undertow, and the German must see Romeos, a trendy, unconventional and very contemporary take on the issues facing queer teens.
For more on these films, go to www.oia.co.za and www.writingstudio.co.za/page1037.html
