BASED on Jaco Jacobs’s 2007 book of the same name, Suurlemoen is an Afrikaans feature film filled with teenagers, skateboards and music.
Directed by Vickus Strijdom, it has a PG restriction because of language and although billed a family film, it is aimed more at the teens.
It follows Tiaan (Tiaan Kelderman) and Zane (Ben Pienaar), two 16-year-olds who dream of starting a rock band. When a prank goes wrong, they end up having to pay a whole lot of money back to their school, so they seize on a teacher’s suggestion that they enter a battle of the bands competition.
Joined by the prettiest girl in school, Liezl (Amiee Richie) and the only girl who appears to have any rhythm, Bongi (Pearl Monama), they start Suurlemoen.
The trailer suggests the film does in some measure refer to the visual stylings of the original source material, which wasn’t a traditional presentation – the main character’s love of Post-its and graphics allowed the author to present the story in graphics and words.
Chris Chameleon pops up as Mr Marx, a teacher at the school, doing more than just sing and toss his hair they way he did in Fanie Fourie’s Lobola. Also watch out for Mr Maritz, played by Salmon de Jager, who directed Musiek vir die Agtergrond. – Theresa Smith