The Unforgettable: The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Unforgettable: The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in the The Gods Must Be Crazy series. Set in Southern Africa, the film stars Namibian San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, a hunter-gatherer of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane, and believes it is a gift from their gods. When Xi returns the bottle to the gods, his journey becomes intertwined with a biologist (Marius Weyers), a newly hired village school teacher (Sandra Prinsloo), and a band of guerrilla terrorists.
The Gods Must Be Crazy was released in South Africa on 10 September 1980 by Ster-Kinekor, and broke several box office records in the country—becoming the most financially successful South African film ever produced at the time. The film was a commercial and critical success in most other countries, but took longer to find success in the United States, where 20th Century Fox eventually released it in 1984, with its original Afrikaans dialogue being dubbed into English. Despite its success, the film attracted criticism for its depiction of race and a perceived ignorance of discrimination and apartheid in South Africa.
In 1989, it was followed by a sequel The Gods Must Be Crazy II.
Film synopsis The tribal people in a remote African desert live a happy life, but it is all torn to pieces when a Coca-Cola bottle falls from a plane. With the villagers fighting over the strange foreign object, tribal leader Xi (N!xau) decides to take the bottle back to the gods to restore peace. His journey to the “end of the world” eventually leads him to crossing paths with a bumbling scientist (Marius Weyers) and a band of guerrillas who take a schoolteacher (Sandra Prinsloo) and her class hostage.
1982 American release poster | |
Directed by | Jamie Uys |
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Written by | Jamie Uys |
Produced by | Jamie Uys |
Starring | Nǃxau ǂTomaSandra PrinslooMarius WeyersNic de JagerMichael ThysLouw VerweyKen GampuSimon Sabela |
Narrated by | Paddy O’Byrne |
Cinematography | Buster Reynolds Robert Lewis |
Edited by | Stanford C. Allen Jamie Uys |
Music by | John Boshoff |
Production company | C.A.T. Films |
Distributed by | Ster-Kinekor (South Africa) |
Release date | 10 September 1980 (South Africa) |
Running time | 109 minutes |
Countries | South Africa Botswana |
Languages | English Afrikaans Juǀ’hoan |
Budget | $5 million[1] |
Box office | R 1.8 billion (~$200 million) |
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