Underdog Entertainment’s documentary “Only a Number”, a uniquely South African take on the subject of relationships between older women and younger men, will be screened on SABC3 on 6 September at 21h30 as part of the channel’s Till Death Do Us Part strand.
The 24-minute film is the story a “coloured” couple from a relatively conservative background who have found and fallen in love with each other. They are Michael and Anita Arendsen and she happens to be 15 years older than he is.
Underdog which previously turned out such acclaimed shows as Death, Flush, Two Moms and the controversial late night adult variety show Below the Belt is proud to present its new a€˜puppy’, director Bransby Diplock. Diplock is being mentored at the production house and Only a Number is his first work for television. “It’s quite surreal actually,” says Diplock, who never had any formal training and is now a junior director at Underdog, “This was always a dream of mine and now it’s actually happening.”.
On the documentary itself Diplock says that it was a subject that was close to his heart and his life. “My documentary subjects are relatives of mine so I wanted to handle their story with care and sensitivity. I also feel that there is a definite double standard in society in that a man can marry a woman half his age but if a woman even comes close to doing that it becomes taboo. I wanted to show that there are people that are making this work; that a woman can marry a man younger than she is and it can work out exactly the same as if it were the other way round.”
Underdog’s Luiz DeBarros mentored the young director through the process of shooting Only a Number; an experience which Diplock describes as “truly life-changing”, adding that, “he is inspiring to work with and can point things out that you haven’t seen before which then seem so simple and obvious.”
Producer Marc Schwinges was touched by the devotion Michael and Anita had to each other. “During the production process I perceived them as an ordinary loving couple no different from any other. The child they have together simply seals the deal of them being a regular couple.”
Only a Number is screened on SABC3 on Wednesday 6 September at 21h30.
