The Gods Must Be Crazy is a wonderful, sentimental movie. Sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious, it describes what happens when two worlds collide – the world of the African Bushman living in the Kalahari Desert, and the world of white and cosmopolitan South Africa.

Directed by Jamie Uys, the main cast consists of Marius Weyers (the biologist), Sandra Prinsloo (the schoolteacher), N!xau (the Bushman) and Louw Verwey (the mercenary).

The instrument of this first contact is – a Coca Cola bottle. A pilot flying overhead jettisons an empty Coca Cola bottle, which is found by a tribe of African Bushmen. To them, it is a wonderful thing – a veritable gift of the gods! They put it to a variety of uses, from making shapes to playing music. Soon, it becomes an essential part of their daily routine. So much so, they cannot do without it – and fights break out for its possession; disturbing the traditional harmony of the Bushmen. The Bushmen decide to get rid of it, but are unable to do so as it keeps finding its way back. Then, in despair, they resolve to take it to the ends of the earth, and throw it away.

It is on the way to the ends of the earth that our heroic Bushman comes into contact with Marius (the biologist) – and learns, among other things, how to ride a jeep. But this idyll too is not destined to last for long. An attempted coup d’etat by a group of black mercenaries find them fleeing into the jungle and taking a large number of schoolchildren (and their schoolteacher) as hostages. The tracking skills of the Bushman are put into good effect as Marius picks up the trail. The Bushman effortlessly blends into the camouflage provided by the sparse desert. Then, with the aid of poison darts, he successfully picks off the mercenaries one by one…

The story has a happy ending – the Bushman gets rid of the Coca Cola bottle, the hostages are freed from the grip of the mercenaries, and after a number of failed attempts, Marius finally gets the girl (the beautiful schoolteacher played by Sandra). The scenery is breathtaking, the acting is competent, but above all the subject has been treated sympathetically and without any condescension. This is one of those movies that one remembers for a long, long time. Made from a budget of only five million dollars, this movie was good enough for a remake / sequel!