The Gods Must Be Crazy is a series of films starring the Namibian San farmer and actor Nǃxau.
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The first film released in 1980, written and directed by Jamie Uys. Set in Botswana and South Africa, it tells the story of Xi, a Sho of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe has no knowledge of the world beyond.
A sequel, was filmed in 1981 but not released until 1989. Xi's name was changed to Xixo in this film. In it, Xixo's two young children encounter poachers in the Kalahari Desert and 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 still raging in nearby Angola at the time.
Nǃxau was featured in three low-budget Hong Kong film comedies that continued the fish-out-of-water aspects of the original films. They were filmed in Cantonese and 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 format in China. The Gods Must Be Funny was recently released to the DVD in South Africa.[1]
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, 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.
A South African film, which also starred Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo, was marketed as a sequel to the first film.
While unrelated to the series, this film was marketed on video in some markets as Gods Must Be Crazy (Part IV).
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