The new Afrikaans musical film from Hartiwood Films, Pretville, opened in cinemas nationwide on 23 November and raked in just over R900,000, making it the number two film at the box office after international blockbuster The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
The film outperformed other big studio titles, including Taken 2 at number three on the top ten, and Sammy’s Adventures 2 and Paranorman, which came in at number four and five respectively.
Pretville is a rollicking romantic musical comedy set in the 1950s, in a vibrant and colourful town where anything can happen and fun is the order of the day. It’s the second musical from the talented filmmaking team behind the 2010 blockbuster Liefling, Die Movie, the best-performing Afrikaans feature film of all time, and brings together once more the vision and skills of producers Paul Kruger and Emma Kruger, and co-producer and director Linda Korsten.
“We are thrilled with the film’s performance at the box office on its opening weekend,’ says Helen Kuun, CEO of local distributor Indigenous Film Distribution. “The competition out there is fierce, with lots of big studio titles in cinema at the moment, so the film has performed exceptionally well. We are confident that it will attract a big audience over the next few weeks because it’s such a feel-good movie that’s packed with music, dance and colour. It’s really the perfect film for the summer and the upcoming holiday season.’
In the lead are Marlee van der Merwe (Liefling, Die Movie) and newcomers Eugene Jensen and Marno van der Merwe (Longshot). Also starring in the film is Terence Bridgett as the flamboyant hairdresser and mayor of Pretville. Other well known stars appearing in the film include Annette Engelbrecht, Lizz Meiring, Steve Hofmeyr, Rina Nienaber, Emo Adams, Margit Meyer-Rodenbeck, Willem Botha, Sanet Ackerman, Kevin Leo and Jakkie Louw, as well as a line-up of fresh, young talent.
