Rage: Meet the cast

It’s a South African ritual. You finish school, and you go on holiday, usually in a small coastal town. That’s just what this group of school-leavers do, heading to the seaside in search of hot days and party nights to celebrate their freedom and entry into adulthood. Roxy, Sihle, Kyle, Leon, Tamsyn and Neo hang out on the beach and drink themselves silly every night. And the townsfolk, Hermien and her son Albert, don’t seem to mind. In fact, they’re welcoming – too welcoming.

During a psychedelic trip on the beach, the friends witness a disturbing birth ritual, which could be a hallucination, or not. Soon, fertility figurines start to appear at random places, and what is supposed to be the best holiday of their lives turns to horror as the teenagers are picked off one by one.

“Scary as hell.”

9Lives

Nicole Fortuin, whose previous film, Flatland, opened the Berlin Panorama, stars as Tamsyn, with The Girl From St Agnes’ breakout stars Jane de Wet (Parable) and Tristan de Beer (Alles Malan, Doctor Who) as Roxy and Kyle; two-time Silwerskerm winner Carel Nel (Dwaalster, Hum, Slaaf) as Albert; Sihle Mnqwazana, who co-wrote and acted in The Fall, a New York Times critic’s choice play, as Neo; Shalima Mkongi (Isithembiso, Nkululeko, Keeping Score) as Sihle; Fiesta, Kanna and Fleur du Cap nominee David Viviers (Kanarie) as Leon; and Lida Botha (Hoofmeisie) as Hermien.

Rage is directed by Jaco Bouwer, a multi-award-winning theatre director who’s one of three Best Director nominees in the drama series category at the 2020 SAFTAs, for Dwaalster. His short film, this country is lonely, premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2018 and he also directed Die Spreeus, one of the 10 most-watched local series on Showmax in 2019.

Positive early reviews for Rage include this from 9Lives: “Scary as hell… The film has jump scares, intimacy, gore, that sense of claustrophobia, mythos and no means of escape… I haven’t seen anything quite like it on the South African film scene and it was thrilling to watch. The film is also beautifully shot and the cinematography is gorgeous.”