Oliver Hermanus’ Living to screen at Venice Film Festival – breaking a rule in the best way possible – News24

Oliver Hermanus

Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

The 79th Venice International Film Festival is breaking an important rule to include South African flair.

The line-up for the annual festival, announced on Tuesday, boasts an impressive mix of red-carpet-friendly, star-studded features and compelling, politically-charged dramas and documentaries.

And among the notable international titles selected for out of competition screenings is South African director Oliver Hermanus' latest film, Living.

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January to five-star reviews.

"A director rising into the highest ranks and an actor at the peak of his powers are the keys to this mesmerising melodrama set in London in the 1950s," Kevin Maher wrote for The Times after watching the film.

Living is an adaptation of the 1952 Japanese drama Ikiru. It follows Mr Williams (Bill Nighy), a civil servant who has become a small cog in the bureaucracy of rebuilding post-WWII England, as he learns that he has a terminal illness. He goes on a quest to find some meaning in his dull life.

Breaking the film festival's golden rule

While Hermanus has been praised for his stunning work, the South African director has received another, more unconventional form of recognition for the film's success.

Living is the only film this year breaking the Venice Film Festival's usual rule that all titles eligible for selection must be world premieres.

According to the festival's regulations on the website, "Only films presented as world premieres that were completed after 11 September 2021; have not had any form of commercial distribution or exhibition on the Internet; and that have neither been previously screened to the public and/or the press nor been presented at any other International film festival or cinematographic event, including those in the country of origin" are eligible.

Hermanus, who is currently on holiday in Greece, told News24:

"I'm so excited to return to The Venice Film Festival with my latest offering: Alberto Barbera and his team's championing of my work has been the defining time for me as a filmmaker. In 2015 Venice changed the course of my career when I was invited to premiere the first ever South African film to compete for the Golden Lion with The Endless River. I've since returned with MOFFIE in the Orizzonti competition in 2019, another unforgettable moment."

The director added that Venice has been his "creative home" for most of his career and that he is honoured to return "on the shoulders of a team of creative giants," which include "Bill Nighy, Aimee Loud Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke in our cast and of course our amazing screenwriter, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro".

Hermanus' next project, a new World War I film titled The History of Sound, is also already generating buzz.

Set to star in the upcoming project are two of the UK's biggest TV stars right now, Emmy-winner Josh O'Connor (known for his role as Prince Charles in The Crown) and Bafta-winner Paul Mescal (who played Connell Waldren in the hit series Normal People).

READ MORE |SA filmmaker Oliver Hermanus to direct new film starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal

Continued here:

Oliver Hermanus' Living to screen at Venice Film Festival - breaking a rule in the best way possible - News24