IT’S PRIMITIVE! IT’S POIGNANT! IT’S PERTURBING! BUT IT WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH, CHEER AND SHOUT!
When a Coke bottle falls out of the sky and lands in the Kalahari desert, a Bushman (N!xau) identifies it as a negative influence and tries to return it to the gods. A huge international hit in its day, it was also criticized for its cartoonish portrayal of Bushmen. The filmmakers’ agenda is ambitious ā racism, colonialism and the follies of modern civilization are targets. However, it is far too often undermined by the ridiculous music, silly slapstick, unnecessarily bloody violence and a childish romance.
1981-Botswana. 108 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced, written and directed byĀ Jamie Uys. Cast: Marius Weyers (Andrew Steyn), Sandra Prinsloo (Kate Thompson), N!xau (Xi), Louw Verwey, Michael Thys.
Trivia: Followed by The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989) as well as three other distantly related films in the 1990s.