Ex-QDMS

Tim Greene

Zara Nicholson

Cape Town director Tim Greene is still reeling after competing against his film-making heroes and scooping the Audience Choice Award for his latest movie, ‘Skeem’, at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Before the announcement Greene said the crew “wouldn’t dare dream” of taking the award over the work of legends like Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders.

Yesterday Greene told the Cape Times: “I’m having difficulty believing it… I was up against all my film-making heroes. The amazing thing is that I wrote this for a South African audience.”

Greene is best known for his 2003 movie, ‘A Boy Called Twist’, which opened at the Cannes Film Festival and was screened at global festivals, winning Best Feature Film at the Apollo Film Festival in 2004.

‘Skeem’ is a comedy adventure about a group of small-time crooks and greedy holidaymakers at a rundown resort, plotting against each other to get their hands on a cardboard box full of cash.

The movie stars Cape Town comedians Kurt Schoonraad and David Isaacs and also Grant Swanby, Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo, Casey B Dolan, Terence Bridgett and Zikhona Sodlaka. Greene said it was amazing to hear roars of laughter from the “very international” audience.

The timing of the award was “perfect”. ‘Skeem’ will be released in South Africa on Friday.

Producer Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat said: “To think that our local comedy film can compete successfully with the best in the world gives me hope for the future of South African films.”

Cape Town Film Commission chief executive Dennis Lillie said: “It’s fantastic news for South African cinema and it shows we are up there as a world-class film-making country.”

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za