Review of Bakgat! (2008) by Christo A — 05 Oct 2017

The film that basically jump-started an industry that was thought to be-long dead. The first decent Afrikaans film since Paljas (1997) and probably the first major-release one as well. The once booming Afrikaans film industry suffered a massive decline in popularity in the 90s due to the fall of Apartheid, and apart from a couple of Leon Schuster movies, no Afrikaans films were made after Paljas until Bakgat.

And ever since then, the Afrikaans film industry has been reinvigorated and reinvented, with new films gaining popularity. The characters were copy-and-pasted from typical American comedies, but with a fresh South African twist that is undeniably charming.

The word "bakgat" means "fantastic/outrageous/cool/hilarious" and that's exactly what this film was. And it's sequels are just as good.