Filmaker Anant Singh is finally receiving the royal treatment he believes his movie Shepherds & Butchers deserves. The locally shot flick, starring British actor Steve Coogan and Birdman star Andrea Riseborough, will open the Jozi Film Festival next month, it was announced yesterday.This comes after Singh and the film's director, Oliver Schmitz - who also directed Mapantsula and Life Above All - pulled the film from the Durban International Film Festival over a clash of screening times.Singh, currently in Rio de Janeiro, said he was honoured that his film was invited to open the Jozi festival. He described it as "an excellent platform for South African films".Based on real events, Shepherds & Butchersis set in 1987, when South Africa still had the death penalty. A young white prison guard (played by Garion Dowds) snaps after witnessing multiple executions and kills seven black men in cold blood.Celebrating its fifth year, the three-day festival kicks off at the Rosebank Cinema Nouveau on September 15 with Singh's film before taking to several venues in the city, including The Bioscope.About 40 films are expected to be screened, including US films A Billion Lives and Wigger Please. Also showing is Doc-U-Mentally,based on five doctors from five different cultures on call for a 30-hour shift in rural KwaZulu-Natal.The battle of rapper Khuli Chana against the police, Picking Up The Pieces: The Khuli Chana Story, is also on the roster.Lisa Henry, organiser of the festival, said she was pleased with the choice of Shepherds & Butchers for the premiere."As a festival whose first priority is to promote local film and local talent, we always open with a South African production," she said...