At last month’s Cannes film festival, one of the more distinctive attractions was a South African movie about three stand-up comedians of contrasting temperaments: one an arrogant womaniser, another a devout yet conflicted Muslim, and the third a “somewhat innocent and naïve” dishwasher.

As intriguing as the set-up of the film – called Bunny Chow – is the interest that Jeremy Nathan, executive producer, says festival goers took in South Africa’s young but fast-developing post-apartheid film industry.