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Tuck into SA's Bunny Chow
07/03/2007 09:09 - (SA)
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| South Africa's first road movie, Bunny Chow, opens on Friday, March 9 2007 at cinemas around the country. |
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Johannesburg - South Africa's first road movie, Bunny Chow, opens on Friday, March 9 at cinemas around the country.
Bunny Chow played successfully at the Toronto International Film Festival and the American Film festival in LA and won awards for best actor and best new director at Sithengi in November last year.
Now, finally, South Africans will get a chance to see for themselves what this film is all about.
Directed by John Barker, and written by Barker and David Kibuuka, Bunny Chow follows the raucous, often ridiculous journey of three stand-up comedians who are joined by an acquaintance as they make their way to SA's biggest rock concert, Oppi Koppi.
Taking its name from one of South Africa's most popular fast foods - a loaf of bread with the inside scooped out and filled with curry - the film is a metaphor for present-day Johannesburg.
"Jozi is the bread, and the different people that make up the city are the ingredients," says Barker.
"The movie is about peeling away the layers and getting to mop up the juice."
Bunny Chow is a departure from current local filmmaking in that it steers clear of history, apartheid and social issues like Aids and gangsterism, to focus purely on a mixed bunch of men whose careers are at stake and whose egos run high.
The film taps into the success of the local comedy scene and stars some of SA's most popular stand-up comedians, including Kibuuka, Kagiso Lediga, Joey Rasdien, Salah Sabiti and David Kau.
Kags is an arrogant womaniser, Joey is a devout but conflicted Muslim, Dave is a fairly naïve Ugandan immigrant who aims to make it big, and Cope is the wanderer who hooks up with them.
"I employed a dark comic palette while exploring many of the banal idiosyncrasies of daily life, the quirky entanglements of personal relations, and over-the-top social taboos," says Barker.
'The film is about a new generation of young South Africans'
The four leave their normal lives behind them and their days take on an increasingly dusty and absurd hue.
Mass debauchery, drugs, rampant sex and true love prevail as they ply their trade on the rock stages at the festival.
Along the way the audience gets to indulge in their trials and tribulations as they journey towards self-destruction and self-discovery.
"Bunny Chow's focus is commercial," adds Barker.
"It's fresh and cool and it's about a new generation of young South Africans and how they interact."
On the net:
www.bunnychowmovie.com
- News24
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