Durban International Film Festival calls off The Look of Love’s screening, lands in controversy

Sunday was a bad day for the organisers of the 34th edition of South Africa's Durban International Film Festival as they experienced their second screening hullabaloo of the season. The unfortunate day arrived with the sudden cancellation of Michael Winterbottom's The Look of Love’s screening.

According to the planners of the festival the film was not watched by the country's Film and Publication Board because "we were unable to send a screener in time to the Film and Publication Board as per their request." Hence the movie couldn’t be classified by the government agency and was not cleared for the screening. The organisers added, "As the film has not been exempted from classification, we were unable to screen it.” The Look of Love is the biopic of Paul Raymond, the controversial adult entertainment industrialist who also became Britain's richest man, starring Steve Coogan and Anna Friel. An apology was issued by the organisers too, "We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Tickets can be refunded at the box office.”

It has been made known that a second screening is likely to take place next Sunday at the DIFF, which is also the event’s closing day. A statement from the organisers said, "We will put a notice at the venue and on Facebook and on our website should we have to cancel the remaining screening next Sunday." Earlier, the opening night screening of the festival was also cancelled. Jahmil XT Qubeka-directed Of Good Report was not cleared for screening by the Film and Publication Board. The organisers apologised for the repeated faltering in the screenings of the films saying, "Most of these problems have been due to the fact that brand new digital technology has recently been introduced into the country, and there have been teething problems in some of the theaters." Durban festival manager Peter Machen added, "We sincerely hope that from today onwards there will be no additional problems."