Thinus Ferreira
It's a foregone conclusion that the biggest buzz on the blue carpet at the 11th kykNET Silwerskermfees film festival this year will revolve around a few grey legends and a shocking empty space.
When kykNET's annual film festival kicks off in Cape Town on Wednesday it will be the silver-haired cast of Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor (Hans Crosses the Rubicon) who will be stealing the spotlight, as well as Frankie & Felipé's Bradley Olivier who died last month.
While it's usually the wrinkle-free faces in South Africa's film and TV biz capturing the clicks of the cameras, it's a new film with a few Afrikaans golden oldies - as well as a soap star who is suddenly no longer there - who will largely monopolise the media attention this year.
Demarcated media space next to the blue carpet is already hard to come by and seats in the Bay-hotel's Rotunda even less for Wednesday's Silwerskermfees première of Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor with veteran actors Pierre van Pletzen, Tobie Cronjé, June van Merch and Sandra Prinsloo.
The film from the filmmaking pair Corné and René van Rooyen's Red Letter Day Pictures who are also responsible for the script and directing, is based on crime writer Rudie van Rensburg's similarly titled book which was a massive hit on radio as an Afrikaans serial read by Cronjé on the SABC's RSG.
Now a hilarious Van Pletzen plays the obstinate and creative 90-year-old Hans, dumped in the old-age home Huis Carpe Diem by his estranged daughter from which he hatches plans to escape. It's here where the energetic senior citizen causes chaos with everything from cannabis cakes to strippers and even leads an old-age revolt under the residents.
In the big screen version, Cronjé plays Vasie, with June van Merch as Baby, Sandra Prinsloo as Liesbet and Nicola Hanekom as the militant Matron who is a retired jail warden.
The kykNET Films movie opens on 29 September at cinemas with the top billing stars in this feisty adventure comedy caper who are older than 70 but are expected to pull family audiences from young to old to cinemas.
The other feature film that will demand attention is the heartfelt comedy Frankie & Felipé due to the main co-star whose place on the blue carpet will be conspicuously empty.
Bradley Olivier (36), known as the paramedic Danny in kykNET's Binnelanders soap unexpectedly passed away last month from a brain aneurysm.
Olivier, in a powerful performance as Franklin Blaze, appears alongside comedian Solomon Cupido as Felipé in this comedy - the first film they've made under their Sturvey Pictures production banner. Besides co-producers, they were also co-writers of the film together with the Safta award-winning scriptwriter Brett Michael Innes.
In the film with Marvin-Lee Beukes as director, the two adult half brothers reunite just before Frankie's upcoming wedding, with the dodgy Felipé who owes some unscrupulous characters money and now risks tarnishing Frankie's reputation as a successful businessman.
Kim Syster is seen as Frankie's fiance, with Zane Meas and Ilse Klink as the future inlaws.
At Thursday's Silwerskermfees debut of Frankie & Felipé the media will have a lot of questions for his co-stars about Olivier, with the stars who will have to walk a fine line with valiant smiles to try and prevent a melancholic première atmosphere.
This year's Silwerskermfees film festival will include for the first time also the premières of six documentary films which were developed and produced by kykNET as part of a mentorship programme with Idea Candy.
The documentaries include Besmet, Born Behind Bars, Call of the Wild, Langafstand, 'n Gids vir
Louzanne and Teater na die Mense.
Besides vyf new feature films, 14 short films and the six documentaries, the pilot episodes of upcoming new local TV series will also be shown to the media for the first time at the festival.
These include Die Brug, kykNET's new reality competition show done by Red Pepper Pictures, as well as the gritty new kykNET drama series Juffrou X headlined by Trix Viviers and set at the fictional and problem-filled Victory Heights high school.
Then there's also Spinners, a new drama series from MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service that revolves around a rubber-circle burning drag racing teenager from the Cape Flats trying to escape a life of gangsterism through motorsport.
This year's Silwerskermfees award ceremony with a thousand invited guests will take place on Saturday evening in the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) where kykNET TV shows will also be included as category prizes and honoured.
The glitzy awards show will be broadcast on kykNET on Sunday night.
