
“The critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop!”
A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.
Release Date: 9/10/1980
Runtime: 109 minutes
Languages: Tswana, English, Afrikaans
Director: Jamie Uys
Budget: $5.0M
Revenue: $200.0M
Companies: CAT Films, Mimosa Films
Countries: South Africa, Botswana
Peter McGinn
This is another one of those older movies my wife and I watched together over twenty years ago, and then recently watched again. We enjoyed it just as much as we did the first time. I had forgotten a lot of the details, so that was actually a good thing as it wasn’t overly familiar to me, like watching Groundhog Day yet again would be. The tag line suggests that the laughs never stop, but that isn’t quite accurate. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments, mostly physical humor, and plenty of pockets of humor here and there, but there are also connecting scenes that set up the plot lines and transition from one to another. There are three main plots that thread together and keep the viewers on their toes. The writer/director apparently put in months of long days without a break putting this together, and his effort was rightly rewarded with great success at the box office. Oddly enough, I didn’t recognize any of his other work, except for the more tepid sequel to this modern classic comedy..

Marius Weyers
Andrew Steyn

Sandra Prinsloo
Kate Thompson

N!xau
Xi
Louw Verwey
Sam Boga

Michael Thys
Mpudi
Nic De Jager
Jack Hind
Fanyana H. Sidumo
Card 1
Joe Seakatsie
Card 2

Brian O'Shaughnessy
Mr. Thompson

Ken Gampu
President

Paddy O'Byrne
Narrator (voice)
Graham Armitage
The Reverend (voice) (uncredited)
2024

2010

1980

2024

2025

2010
N/A

2023

1994

2025

1963

2004

1990