From struggle to triumph - pt. 5

THE ALTERNATE ENDING

Sweet 'n Short (1991)

Directed by: Gray Hofmeyr
Starring: Leon Schuster, Alfred Ntombela, Casper de Vries, Gerrit Schoonhoven, James Borthwick

Oh Schucks… it's the New South Africa! Leave it to South Africa's favourite filmmaker, Leon Schuster, to give an early idea of what a liberated South Africa would be like – for a white man. Schuster plays Sweet Coetzee, a pompous sportscaster who is transported to a radically new South Africa after an accident puts him in a coma for 20 years. The signs of this new world are alarming and hilarious. And unlike some of Schuster's more recent slapstick fare, Sweet 'n Short has aged rather well. It's still funny (watching Riaan Cruywagen rattle through a news broadcast in Zulu is a classic WTF moment) and in Schuster and the diminutive Alfred Ntombela we have SA's most enduring comedic partnership.

• INTERVIEW: Leon Schuster

• READER REVIEW: There's a Zulu on my Stoep