Kurt Darren is the king of Afrikaans sokkie musiek and he once again won a South African Music Award for the genre two weeks ago. He embodies Afrikaans music and whenever you ask anyone about Kurt Darren they’ll tell you about Meisie Meisie, one of South Africa’s best-selling songs.
He is one of those musicians who has been credited with making Afrikaans music more mainstream and these days even non-Afrikaans speakers get down to sokkie because of him. However, his foray into film wasn’t expected and it remains to be seen whether he will impress.
Ek Lief Jou is a film by Ate De Jong about a famous Afrikaans singer, Dirk de Jong, who is engaged to Lisa Sneiders, a supermodel who has reached her sell-by date. Their relationship seems solid, but it is a façade, especially on Lisa’s side. A search for the face of his latest music video takes him to Belgium where he meets someone who could be his true love.
Darren plays Dirk and the role of his supermodel fiancée is played by model and actress Christina Storm. A bit art imitating life isn’t it? Darren thinks so too.
“Dirk is rather similar to me, but luckily for me my fiancée is not a gold digger like Christina Storm’s character,” he said, laughing.
“It’s weird, yes, but I think that people will in a way already have a relationship with my character.”
This is his first major role in a feature film. When asked why he decided to get into acting, he said he always wanted to act. “I’ve watched many movies and I realised that I actually love film,” he said.
“I see film as an extended song. I’ve used many films as inspiration for my music, so I think the time was right for me to make a foray into acting. I mean I have nothing to lose, so why not?”
In the opening scenes of the movie, we discover his fiancée is cheating on him and he realises she has a plan to marry and divorce him a year later, with the sole purpose of getting his money.
It’s a typical gold-digging tactic and Darren says Storm was the perfect person to play the part of Lisa. “She’s a gorgeous actress and I think she did a great job as Lisa,” he said. “She made it believable, and I mean Lisa is a total witch and for Christina to take to that role so well it was like she’s actually as evil as her character in the film in real life.”
While in Belgium, he briefly meets Anna De Klerck, a journalist played by Belgian actress Ilse De Vis. Anna finds pop singers shallow, stupid and egotistical and makes sure she doesn’t get close to them for her and their sakes.
However, Anna then finds out that she has been assigned to do a feature story on him and has to follow him to South Africa. After Dirk fails to find the girl for his music video, he spots Anna, takes to her and makes her his leading lady.
Unexpectedly, they click. This irks Lisa, and after many tiffs Dirk finally sees her for what she really is. Lisa then finds out who Anna is and exposes her.
This film has all the ingredients to be a box office hit. Afrikaans films are undeniably popular in South Africa, as shown by titles such as Poena is Koning and Bakgat.
Darren says they are successful because the film makers understand their target audience. “I honestly don’t know how these movies always make a lot of money in the local box office, but I think it’s because the film makers understand the market and therefore capitalise on it. Most of the movies are fun, comedies, where the audience just goes to have chill and laugh their head off. Ek Lief Jou is just another example of a fun family film that people will enjoy.” A winning recipe, it seems.
“I will say that this film will appeal to all races and if you’re curious to see my acting skills, come and watch,” he said, laughing. “I think it’s a good movie to unwind to and have a good laugh with friends and family. It’s a South African film too, so that should be enough of a drawcard for people to support local film makers. We need to grow the film industry so we can make more films.”
Does he have plans to act in another film? It seems like he does and sooner than we think.
“I learnt that I loved the whole movie-making process. The creative process involved in making a film is really something to marvel at and I’m already looking forward to being in another film, which should be later this year.”
South Africa, it seems we have a new triple threat. He sings, can dance (if only a little) and he can act. Do Dirk and Lisa last or do Dirk and Anna reunite?
Well, that can only be answered if you watch the film. - Sunday Tribune