| abstract
| - The Gods Must Be Crazy is a South African comedy film written and directed by Jamie Uys. Originally released in 1980, the film is the first in The Gods Must Be Crazy series of films. Set in Botswana, it tells the story of Xi, a Sho of the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian San farmer Nǃxau) whose tribe has no knowledge of the world beyond. The film is followed by one officialsequel although three unofficial sequels were produced in Hong Kong starring Nǃxau. ==Plot== The film is a collision of three separate stories — the journey of a Ju/'hoansi Bushman to the end of the earth to get rid of a glass bottle, the romance between a bumbling scientist and a school teacher, and a band of guerrillas on the run. Xi and his tribe of Bushmen relatives are "living well off the land" in the Kalahari Desert. They are happy because the gods have provided plenty of everything, and no one in the tribe has unfulfilled wants. One day, a glass bottle is thrown out of an aeroplane and falls to earth unbroken. Initially, this strange artifact seems to be another boon from the gods — Xi's people find many uses for it. But unlike anything that they have had before, there is only one glass bottle to go around. This exposes the tribe to a hitherto unknown phenomenon, property, and they soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, and even violence. Since it has caused the tribe unhappiness on two occasions, Xi decides that the glass bottle is an evil thing and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. He sets out alone on his quest and encounters Western civilization for the first time. The film presents an interpretation of civilization as viewed through Xi's perceptions. There are also plot lines about shy biologist Andrew Steyn who is studying the local animals (which, because of his nervousness around women, he once describes as "manure-collecting"); the newly hired village school teacher, a former newspaper reporter named Kate Thompson; and some guerrillas led by Sam Boga, who are being pursued by government troops after an unsuccessful attempt to massacre the Cabinet of "Barani" and the president. Also taking a share of the limelight is Steyn's Land Rover, dubbed the Antichrist (also "Son of a Mlakka") by his assistant and mechanic, M'pudi. Also part of the chaos is an impudent safari tour guide named Jack Hind, who has designs on Thompson and often steals Steyn's thunder. Xi happens upon a farm and, being hungry as well as oblivious to the concept of ownership, shoots a goat with a tranquilizer arrow. For this he is arrested and jailed for stealing livestock. M'pudi, who lived with the Bushmen for a long time and speaks Xi's language, realizes that Xi will die in the alien environment of a prison cell, and he and Steyn manage to hire Xi as a tracker for the 11 remaining weeks of his prison sentence. Meanwhile, the guerrillas invade the school where Kate teaches and use her and her pupils as human shields for their escape by foot to the neighboring country and threaten to kill the children if they see one soldier. Steyn, M'pudi and Xi, who are unwittingly observing the local wildlife within the terrorists' chosen path, manage to immobilize the guerrillas as they are passing by and save Kate and the children. Steyn allows Xi to leave to continue his quest to the edge of the world, and subsequently he and Kate become romantically involved. Xi eventually finds himself at the top of a cliff with a solid layer of low-lying clouds obscuring the landscape below. This convinces Xi that he has reached the edge of the world, and he throws the bottle off the cliff (this scene was filmed at God's Window in Eastern Transvaal, South Africa (now Mpumalanga), at the edge of the escarpment between the Highveld and Lowveld of South Africa). Xi then returns to his tribe and a warm welcome from his family.
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