Pretville

What it's about:

Serah Somers (Marlee van der Merwe) lives in Pretville with her Ouma Sarie (Annette Engelbrecht) and her mother Emily (Sanet Ackermann). Loved by all, beautiful and attractive, Serah makes every boy look twice, especially Frank (Marno van der Merwe), who thinks Serah is his. But when Serah meets Dawid de Wit (Eugene Jensen), the son of a local farmer, sparks fly. In the meantime her mother struggles to deal with feelings for an old flame, pop star Eddie Elektriek, who returns to Pretville after 25 years.

What we thought:

Ever wished your life was like a musical? Where singing your feelings is acceptable, and even normal for that matter. Where dancing and having fun is cool. Where happy endings are the order of the day. And where being a poet AND you know it, well that's just The. Coolest. Ever!

Well, for 91 minutes, Pretville will make this wish come true.

From building the set, an actual small town just outside Hartbeespoortdam which the public can now visit, to creating an explosion of colour and music typical of the 50s, producers Paul Kruger and Emma Kruger, and co-producer and director Linda Korsten have really outdone themselves.

And I actually don't want to mention it, due to the fact that Pretville is way next level, but they're the same filmmaking team that brought us Liefling, Die Movie. So moving on...

The music in Pretville is amazing. Full stop. It's over the top (but let's face it, over the top is a musical's middle name), it's original, it's catchy, and all of this in Afrikaans. Bringing in someone like Machiel Roets, who's been raking up experience in London's West End for the past 12 years to write the music, was probably the best decision that was made for this film. 

Just a heads-up though, for some it might be a bit weird to hear rock and jive-type 50s music in Afrikaans, but to be honest, you quickly get past it. And as an added bonus, Pretville has subtitles.

From the music to the set to the cast, everything just works. Steve Hofmeyr plays the role of pop star Eddie Elektriek with great ease, and this may be due to the fact that he is a singer, but some forget that Steve started out as an actor - think Agter Elke Man. Here Steve plays a good guy, and it suits him.

Lead actress Marlee van der Merwe (Liefling, Die Movie) is heartwarming as Serah and together with newcomer Eugene Jensen, they create some kind of magic onscreen. This may be due to Eugene's eyecandy factor, but there's never been anything wrong with having talent AND looking good!

There are so many other great characters in Pretville that it's impossible to mention every single one. Stand out performances do include Terence Bridgett (Isidingo, 7de Laan, Binnelanders) who plays flamboyant hairdresser and mayor Pierre Lukuveer; Lizz Meiring as flirty candystore owner Lollie le Roux and of course Emo Adams and Margit Meyer Rödenbeck as the local cops... hilarious!

Pretville is vibrant, exciting, and over the top, so if you're into that kind of thing, go and have pret! (fun!)