''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' is a series of films starring the

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

n San farmer and actor Nǃxau ǂToma.

Official films

''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' (1980)

The first film released in 1980, written and directed by

Jamie Uys Jacobus Johannes Uys (; 30 May 1921 – 29 January 1996), better known as Jamie Uys, was a South African film director, best known for directing the 1980 comedy film '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'' and its 1989 sequel '' The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' ...

. Set in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, it tells the story of Xi, a San of the

Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

whose tribe discovers an empty

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...

bottle. The bottle brings discord to the tribe, and Xi is sent out into the unknown world beyond the Kalahari to return the bottle to the Gods by throwing the bottle off the world's end.

''The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' (1989)

A sequel was released in 1989. Xi's name was changed to Xixo in this film. In it, Xixo's two young children encounter poachers in the Kalahari Desert, explore the back of their truck, and become unable to jump off once it starts moving. Xixo must once again travel great distances to retrieve them, and once again encounters various other western characters who are on quests of their own. The film is notable for the increased role of animals throughout the story, and for its light-hearted treatment of the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

still raging in nearby

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

at the time.

Unofficial films

In the early 1990s, Nǃxau was cast in three low-budget unofficial sequels that continued the fish-out-of-water aspects of the first two films. They were produced in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

, filmed in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

and then dubbed in other languages. As of 2007, the three Hong Kong films have not been released in the United States, although they have been released on

VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...

format in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. ''The Gods Must Be Funny in China'' was recently released on DVD in South Africa.

''Crazy Safari'' (''The Gods Must Be Crazy III'') (1991)

A hopping vampire wreaks havoc in Nǃxau's tribe, but soon they discover how to handle him and he becomes a great asset to them. Meanwhile, a Chinese

necromancer Necromancy () is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events ...

, sent by the corpse's descendants, searches for him, together with a bumbling cowardly representative charged with ensuring that the necromancer returns his ancestor as desired.

''Crazy Hong Kong'' (''The Gods Must Be Crazy IV'') (1993)

N!xau accidentally hitches a ride with a Chinese businesswoman from the African plain to her home in

. With only his natural instincts and desert-honed survival skills, the intrepid Bushman evades a gang of diamond thieves and stumbles into one comic mishap after another as he tries to find his way back home.
Hong Kong Movie Database entry

''The Gods Must Be Funny in China'' (''The Gods Must Be Crazy V'') (1994)

Hijinks ensue when Nǃxau travels to Beijing where he's recruited to accompany a track team on a week long survival race through the Chinese wilderness.
Hong Kong Movie Database entry

Related films

''Jewel of the Gods'' (1989)

n film, which also starred

Marius Weyers Marius Weyers (born 3 February 1945, in Johannesburg) is a South African actor. He lives with his wife Yvette, an artist in her own right, in Rooi-Els in the Western Cape. He received international attention playing Andrew Steyn, a bumbling s ...

and

Sandra Prinsloo Sandra Prinsloo (born 15 September 1947), also known as Sandra Prinzlow, is a South African actress best known internationally for her role as Kate Thompson in the 1980 film '' The Gods Must Be Crazy''. Prinsloo has also appeared in numerous So ...

; officially unrelated but still marketed as a sequel to the first (1980) film.

''There's a Zulu on My Stoep'' (1993)

While unrelated to the series, this film was marketed on video in some markets as ''Gods Must Be Crazy (Part IV)''.

References

External links

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Hong Kong Movie Database entries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gods Must Be Crazy (film series), The Comedy film series Films set in Botswana Films shot in Botswana Botswana films Films set in South Africa Films shot in South Africa Hong Kong comedy films South African comedy films