DIFF26
bios at the Durban International Film Festival 2026
A rolling index of bios reviews, interviews, essays and festival notes from DIFF 2026.
This page will be updated throughout the festival.
Published
Review | From Dust We Spin Waaabap-bap-bap. A story as old as time. Sometimes you just want to donut until your tyres come off, and the government won't let you.
Review | Who Is Still Alive? There are no statistics here. There are no images of bombed-out buildings. No before-and-after satellite images of devastation. No discussions of political actors. These are nine people in a blacked-out studio talking of their love for Gaza, the land, the music, the people.
Review | Dance With Me Dance With Me hits all the story beats but does not convincingly portray a universe with an interior life.
Review | Themba People grieve differently. This is the entire premise of Mngomezulu’s Themba. The entire film is two people grieving differently, and misunderstanding each other’s grief. There is little plot business.
DIFF26 | I Myself Am The Sun An essay on Gayton McKenzie's call for South African blockbusters, the NFVF, Sediba, social cohesion, AI-compliant pitch culture, and the death of chance in state-funded cinema.
Review | FOSTA Review of Eldon van Aswegen's documentary on DJ Fosta, Bridges For Music, Langa, redemption, music, and the difficulty of making a feelgood film about complicated lives.
Interview | “The Passage Of Time Is Not A Story” An interview with Eldon van Aswegen, director of FOSTA, on thirteen years of footage, the edit, music, memory, animation, and finding the story inside the archive.
Notes
DIFF2026 coverage on bios is written in the spirit of festival response: immediately.
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