Cape Town - Satire of everything from transformation in rugby to the antics of government ministers is what audiences can expect from comic actor Leon Schuster when he releases his latest movie this month, Schuks! Pay Back the Money!
Fans will be pleased to know that while the film is inspired by local politics, it has no shortage of Schuster’s relentlessly popular brand of slapstick.
Schuster and the cast were at premieres and giving interviews about the new movie this week.
This is his 18th film and he sees no end in sight. “I can’t retire, I need to make movies. It’s an addiction to see people laugh.
“It will always bring you back to make movies. I’m not going to be klapped around any more though,” he said.
undefinedSchuster said: “I think satire is very important for my genre. I can’t do movies without a bit of satire.”
Director Gray Hofmeyr feels they pushed that element a little more in this film.
“This has more satire than any other film we’ve done. There were moments when we wondered about how safe that was, would we turn people off?” said Hofmeyr.
Actor Desmond Dube said his character parodies the likes of Sports Minister Fikile “Razzmatazz” Mbalula and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete.
The film’s opening scene sets the tone: Schuster, wearing a rubber Jacob Zuma mask, runs on to a rugby field during a Lions game.
The crowd, predictably, becomes very excitable.
Cape Town and the Western Cape feature prominently, with the city’s late-night radio “love doctor” Mehboob Bawa starring as a corrupt traffic cop.
Cape Town Comedy Club regulars and other comedians, including Schalk Bezuidenhout, Kagiso “KG” Mokgadi and Kurt Schoonraad all make an appearance for Shucks gags, and residents of coastal towns such as Gansbaai, Kassiesbaai and Bredasdorp get to be hoodwinked.
In Pay Back The Money! Schuks drunkenly makes off with the Currie Cup trophy after a rugby function, and the trophy is subsequently stolen from his house by revived franchise characters Bossie (Ivan D Lucas) and Savage (Gerrit Schoonhoven).
The sinister duo were last seen in 1991 in Sweet ’n’ Short.
Schuks is fined R1 million but strikes a deal with the sports minister who commissions him to make a documentary showing South Africa in “a positive light”: cue candid camera-style gags.
Meanwhile in a more scripted sub-plot, the Currie Cup trophy changes hands on a funny journey that includes an Indian cop’s wife cooking curry in it.
The key to Schuster’s gags is his ability to create fear or anger in his victims with the characters that he plays.
A highlight of this film is watching Schuster being pounded about the head by a Gansbaai women whose liquor he had just poured out in a bottle store.
“Gray is always trying to get me to push it further and that is when I do get moered (beaten up),” said Schuster
l Schuks! Pay Back the Money! is in cinemas from August 28.
Weekend Argus