Fans of Aziz Hassim‘s The Lotus People, would be interested in the film Legends of the Casbah, showing tomorrow (2pm, Sneddon) at the Durban International Film Festival.
Legends of the Casbah is an indepth cross section of the spirited and unique Indian community in South Africa in the 1950s. It visits iconic Durban spaces in the legendary Grey Street area, the “Casbah”. Directors Riason Naidoo and Damon Heatlie paints a picture of a diverse, vibrant community in the 1950s – defined by defiant characters who refused to bow to the attempts by the Apartheid regime to contain and define the community through homogenising stratifications. The film introduces us to politicians, gangster kingpins, sportsmen and beauty queens, all of whom colour in the demeaning black and white outlines drawn into history books by an oppressive government.
