Current Work
We're proud to share the news that our independent film made it to all three major horror lists for 2021.
Variety, Forbes and IGN named the eco-horror on their respective selections, alongside projects like A Quiet Place 2, Titane and Lamb.
Read more here:
Variety - Best Horror Movies of 2021
Forbes - The Top 10 Horror Films Of 2021
GAIA
On a surveillance mission in a primordial forest, a park ranger encounters two survivalists living a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. The boy and his philosophical father seem to have their own religion, and a mysterious relationship to nature. There are many suspicious aspects to their existence, but when the cabin is attacked by strange, post-human beings one night, she learns that there is a greater threat in this emergent wilderness.
Gaia, another collaboration with director Jaco Bouwer, is an ecological horror fantasy which engages the burning issues of our time.
Role: Writer & Producer
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Film Initiative Africa
Premiére: SXSW 2021
Trailer: https://youtu.be/e9QbbTp5pE8
Asseblief & Dankie
('Please & Thank You')
In this Christmas comedy, a homeless woman saves the life of a wealthy businessman. He offers to let her stay in his penthouse while she recovers. She claims to be from another world ... but soon his own starts falling apart.
Role: Writer & Director
Produced by: Marche Media
Premiére: December 25 2021, kykNET
Trailer: https://youtu.be/j82_gMh3nGI
Previous Work
SIENDE BLIND
('Seeing Blind')
A psychological profiler with the South African Police Service spends the lockdown with her family, and uses the time to revisit some cold cases. Startling new information leads her down a twisted trail through the history of her new in-laws. Soon she finds herself trapped between suspicion and doubt, with only her instincts to save the lives of her loved ones.
Role: Creator & Writer
Director: Morné du Toit
Produced by: Nagvlug
Premiére: November 2020, kykNET
Trailer: https://youtu.be/_OhSN7TOiY0
4 MURE
('Four Walls')
An anthology series based on a hotel room. Intriguing characters move in an and out of the four walls of a questionable establishment. They are received by romance, by horror, by science fiction and drama. None emerge unscathed.
Role: Creator & Writer
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Marche Media
Premiére: January 2021, kykNET
GRIEKWASTAD
Breaking the record viewership on DSTV's Box Office, this chilling thriller starring Arnold Vosloo is based on the true story of the Steenkamp family. In 2012, in the small Northern Cape town of Griekwastad, 15-year old Don murdered his family after raping his sister. The crime and subsequent trial shook the nation. Initial outrage at yet another farm murder grew into horror as the truth emerged. The film follows lead investigator Dick de Waal through the stages of uncovering a grisly truth.
Role: Writer
Director: Jozua Malherbe
Produced by: Scene 23
Premiére: Silwerskerm festival, August 2019
Trailer: https://youtu.be/R14Oio6ldyM
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10100966/
RAGE
What was supposed to be the best holiday of their lives turns to horror as a group of teenagers are picked off one by one in a small coastal village.
Role: Writer
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Nouvanaand
Premiére: March 2020, Showmax
Trailer: https://youtu.be/PfDFC9hmI_o
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11112468/
SOMERKERSFEES
('Summer Christmas')
It’s the season for miracles – and that’s all that will save this family. Somewhere between sexy lifesavers and stolen Christmas trees, the Van Wyks discover the true spirit of Christmas.
that forces them to come to terms with their flaws, differences, hate and love for each other.
Role: Writer
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Nouvanaand
Premiére: December 2019, kykNET
Trailer: https://youtu.be/qd8p1lNihGU
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11754496/
DIE SPREEUS
A supernatural mystery TV series featuring two investigators who specialise in crimes related to the paranormal. This uniquely South African take on the supernatural genre draws on the rich tradition of South African ghost stories.
Nominated for best South African drama series in 2019, winner of two SAFTAs.
Role: Creator & Writer
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Marche Media
Premiére: kykNET, April 9, 2019
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/338539321
Launch Promo: https://vimeo.com/338559817
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10175682/
EK HET JOU GEMAAK
This short film is based on Rabie's famous short story (written in 1948) about an engineer who builds a robot to replace his dead wife. The robot's intelligence grows, as he mimics and ultimately surpasses his human master.
Role: Director
Produced by: Entoptic
Premiére: Silwerskerm festival, August 25, 2017
LIEWER
Four individuals' lives intersect, commencing a linguistic dissection of love. Cliches become weapons in a struggle that pivots between cynicism and tenderness. A theatre production that speaks back to Patrick Marber's Closer from a South African perspective.
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Produced by: Kunste Onbeperk
Premiére: KKNK, April 2017
DIS EK ANNA
Feature film, adapted from Anchien Troskie’s two best-selling novels (Dis ek, Anna and Die staat teen Anna Bruwer). A woman takes powerful revenge for the years of sexual abuse by her stepfather. A brave study of the complex psychology of victims of paedophilia.
Role: Writer (adaptation)
Director: Sara Blecher
Produced by: Palama Productions
Premiére: Durban International Film Festival – 2015
Awards: Best film, Best Director, Best Actor (Silwerskerm Film Festival – 2015)
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/138962752
WE DIDN’T COME TO HELL FOR THE CROISSANTS
The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the international cult hit The Epicene Butcher with stories that seduce the sinless and astonish the immoral. Definitely not for children. Unless you are an awful parent.
Role: Contributing writer (“Envy”)
Director: Lindiwe Matshikiza
Produced by: Pop-Art Productions https://popartcentre.co.za
Premiére: National Arts Festival – 2015
Awards: Silver Ovation Award (National Arts Festival – 2015)
BUITE BLAF DIE HONDE SWART
A worker seeks his brother’s body. The world explodes on a construction site in Africa. An Afrikaans translation of Bernard-Marie Koltés’s renowned Combat de nègre et de chiens.
Role: Translator
Director: Jaco Bouwer - www.jacobouwer.com
Produced by: Jaco Bouwer
Premiére: Klein Karoo National Arts Festival – 2015
POSKANTOOR
Described as “visually and vocally spectacular” and “one of the most impressive South African operas”, this opera featured some of the finest young theatre and music talent in the country. In a uniquely South African plot, the opera buffa genre is adapted to tell the story of a young woman widow with a lascivious reputation in a conservative rural town.
Role: Librettist
Director: Jaco Bouwer - www.jacobouwer.com
Produced by: Biblioteek Produksies
Composer: Braam du Toit
Premiére: Aardklop Arts Festival – 2014
Awards: Best Production (Aardklop Arts Festival – 2014)
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/106609163
OORSEE
Oorsee has been described as a “post-apocalyptic black comedy almost drowning in cultural reference”. While satirising several prevalent cultural features of contemporary South Africa, it reappropriates texts by William Shakespeare, Sławomir Mrożek, Sint Brandaan, John Milton, JM Coetzee, Stanisław Lem, Leon Schuster and Abraham.
Role: Writer
Director: Wolf Britz
Produced by: Saartjie Botha
Premiére: Aardklop Arts Festival – 2013
Awards: Smeltkroes Prize (Aardklop Arts Festival – 2013); Hertzog Prize for Literature (2015)
ROOILAND
A gritty prison drama, a story about stories, memories inherited become weapons in the mouths of prisoners. Four men in a cramped cell struggle for space to sleep, sit, speak, think. When everyone screams at once, a strange truth emerges.
Role: Writer
Director: Jaco Bouwer www.jacobouwer.com
Produced by: Jaco Bouwer
Premiére: Aardklop Arts Festival – 2011
Awards: Smeltkroes prize for Best New Work (Aardklop Arts Festival – 2014); Best New Production, Best Upcoming Artist, Best Director, Best Actor (Fiësta Awards – 2012); Best New South African Script, Best Director, Best Lighting Design, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Fleur du Cap Awards – 2014); Hertzog Prize for Literature (2015).
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/67957386
SIELSIEK
This site-specific journey into a psychiatric hospital was an exploration into madness as social phenomenon. In an empty building, the audience travels from scene to scene, meeting various characters and assembling a disturbing narrative from a series of monologues.
Role: Co-writer (with Willem Anker), director
Produced by: Tertius Kapp
Premiére: Aardklop Arts Festival – 2006
SKROOTHONDE
The end of the world finally reached Potchefstroom, South Africa. The audience finds its way through a maze of rust and dead cars in the scrap yard which serves as stage for this post-apocalyptic play by Willem Anker. Along the way, they encounter the strange members of a society that worships falling sattelites and fuel reservoirs.
Role: Director
Written by: Willem Anker
Produced by: Tart ’n Koggel
Premiére: Aardklop Arts Festival – 2004
Awards: Aartvark Award for most innovative work (Aardklop Arts Festival – 2004)
HARMSE
In this experimental comedy, a noir tale was told entirely in black and white. Make-up, stage design and clever projection created an unreal space where the stereotypical hard-boiled detective grimaced his way through fatal femmes and carefully constructed lies.
Role: Director and writer
Produced by: Tart ’n Koggel
Premiére: Klein Karoo National Arts Festival – 2006
DE FAMILIE WAGENAER
The first of three site-specific works, this play was presented in an abandoned farmhouse outside of Oudtshoorn. A bus driver leaves the audience to their fate in the middle of nowhere. In time, a lantern appears. They are guided through a house of horrors where several ghosts re-enact their tragic histories night after night.
Role: Director and writer
Produced by: Tart ’n Koggel
Premiére: Klein Karoo National Arts Festival – 2004
JOHNNY EN DIE MAAIERS
A documentary exploring the changing face of music in South Africa over the past 40 years, with special focus on the Afrikaans music industry. A mockumentary approach provides a humoristic take on otherwise serious subject matter.
Role: Writer and researcher
Produced by: Thirdworld Media
Premiére: MK89 – 2009
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwOEMSghzlo
