Underplayed Gems

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

The Gods Must Be Crazy poster
Directed by
Jamie Uys
Genre
comedy film, action film, adventure film, road movie
Country
Botswana, South Africa
Runtime
1h 49m
Rated
PG
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 1,328 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A hunter-gatherer from the Kalahari finds a Coca-Cola bottle and thinks it is a gift from the gods. He leaves his tribe to return the bottle, and his path crosses with a biologist, a teacher, and some terrorists.

quirkylightheartedwhimsicalgentleplayfuladventurousfunny

What happens

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 Gods Must Be Crazy series. Set in Southern Africa, the film stars South West African San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, a hunter-gatherer of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an aeroplane, and believes it to be a gift from their gods. When Xi sets out to return the bottle to the gods, his journey becomes intertwined with that of 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 September 10, 1980, by Ster-Kinekor Films, 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 it was eventually re-released in 1984 by 20th Century Fox, with its original Afrikaans dialogue dubbed into English. Despite its success, the film attracted controversy for its depiction of race and perceived ignorance of discrimination and segregation (apartheid) in South Africa. In 1989, it was followed by a sequel The Gods Must Be Crazy II. Three unofficial sequels were produced in Hong Kong, where Nǃxau reprised his role. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.