Cape Town – Hollywood producer Bill Gerber praised South Africa’s "versatile locales" and "movie production incentives" in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the Cannes Film Festival.

Gerber, whose latest project is the Sean Penn directed film The Last Face, only had good things to say about filming in South Africa.

In the interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gerber says the South African landscape offered a variety of options to the team.

"We shot in Cape Town, Port Edward, Upington and Pella, Northern Cape (where cave dwellings were filmed). In Cape Town, we were able to double places as far as Zurich, whereas in Port Edward, that was all jungle exteriors," Gerber told The Hollywood Reporter.

He added: "We did a gigantic amount of local casting. Our crew was spectacular. In the credits, Sean calls them his ‘kick-ass South African crew’."

The Last Face stars Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem and tells the story of a director (Theron) of an international aid agency in Africa that meets a relief aid doctor (Bardem) amidst a political/social revolution, and together face tough choices surrounding humanitarianism and life through civil unrest.

PICS: Charlize Theron on set in Long Street

A variety of South African films are being screened at the National Film and Video Foundation’s own pavilion at Cannes.

The SA flicks being screened include Kalushi, Free State, Mrs Right Guy and the box office hit Happiness Is A Four-Letter Word.

Several local short films are also being screened. Those include Hamba Kahle, Scribblings, Into Us and Ours, Konneksies, Umva and Precious Gift.



(Photo: Gallo Images)