Afrikaans film makes history

Offbeat romantic comedy “Strikdas – ‘n familie gedoente” became the first Afrikaans feature film to be released worldwide simultaneously, in theatres across South Africa, and to international audiences outside of Africa and adjacent islands, via the video-on-demand platform Scatzy.com.

Scatzy.com, a content portal and social media platform, provides South Africans all around the world with content form their home country. It  was set up to drive hundreds of thousands of South African expats to content that has been produced in South Africa, providing a huge opportunity both for content owners and for potential viewers who are yearning for familiar entertainment content.

“As the distributor of  “Strikdas – ‘n familie gedoente”, we are excited to be involved in this initiative, which sees the film having the same day-and-date release on the big screen and on-demand via the Internet,” says Helen Kuun, CEO of Indigenous Film Distribution.

“It’s the first time this has ever happened to an Afrikaans film, and we are all keen to see how an entirely new audience – who now have access to local content — will respond to this unique pay-per-view system. It’s an amazing development for the local television and film industry and, of course, for South Africans who are living or travelling elsewhere in the world.”

The film’s producer, Stefan Enslin, adds that “Strikdas – ‘n familie gedoente” was the perfect choice as the first film to be released on two different platforms.

“It’s a quirky romantic comedy, shot on location in Stellenbosch, which tells the story of Don ‘Vossie’ Vorster, a geeky bunny-hugger with a good heart who is about to set off for university,” he says. “At its heart lies the question of whether true love is able to surmount big obstacles.”

The film’s hero Vossie, played by Kaz McFadden (“Knysna”, 2014) falls in love with Willemien, played by Leandie du Randt (“Mooirivier”, 2015), the spoilt daughter of a wealthy wine farm owner. He finds himself having to prove his worth not only to her, but also to her snobbish family. At the same time, he has to fight off Willemien’s two-timing ex, who is not prepared to let her go without  a fight.

Produced by Faith in Motion Productions and Philo Pieterse’s Philo Films, the production company behind runaway success “Platteland”, the film also stars Albert Maritz, Susanne Beyers, Gys de Villiers, Elsabé Daneel, Sandra Kotzé and Sean-Marco Vorster.

The IMF reports that around 5 per cent of the global population resides outside of their country of birth. Scatzy’s founders aim to reach those groups that still have a defined link to their country of birth and an interest in content from back home. With its initial focus on rolling out content to all English speaking countries at present, and all Spanish speaking countries by the end of 2016, Scatzy estimates a market of 120 million potential viewers.

“With Scatzy we now have an additional distribution channel that will enable us to reach a market that has been untapped until now, which is great news for filmmakers and content owners,” says Kuun.

“Strikdas – ‘n Familie Gedoente” was distributed by Indigenous Film Distribution and released in cinema nationally and worldwide (excluding Africa and adjacent islands) on Scatzy.com on 2 April 2015