Rapper Cream Machine amplifies the Cape Flats vibe in Die Blokke
The short film Die Blokke is set in and around Gloucester Place, one of those on-the-breadline apartment blocks on the Cape Flats. This is what Muhammad and his down-and-out friends call home. Mohammad desperately wants to be a good dêrra for his laaitie, but it’s tough because they live among drug dealers and often bullets fly from gangsters’ flashy, pimped cars.
When such a bullet shatters the dream of a close friend, Muhammad’s dark side surfaces, and to make matters worse, an illegal gun lands in the wrong hands.
Still, throughout the film, Muhammad always has the same ironic colloquial reply when someone asks how he is doing: “Ons hou maar die blink kant bo”, which means something along the line of “we keep the shiny side up”.
Melissa de Vries-Joseph, known for playing Sasha in the soapie Arendsvlei is the producer of Die Blokke, and actress Roxanne Blaise makes her directorial debut.
Roxanne also co-wrote the script with Mujaahid Valley.
Not long after they started plotting the story, Roxanne and Mujaahid agreed that the line “Ons hou die blink kant bo” would sound as smooth as butter when said by Gershwin Mias (Call Me Thief, Arensdsvlei).
“I showed Mujaahid a photo of Gershwin, telling him this is our Muhammad, and Muji’s immediate response was ‘Oh YES!’. From that moment on, we wrote the character with Gershwin in mind,” Roxanne explains.
Someone else was on their radar in the early stages of crafting the story: the rapper Cream Machine (real name: Marvin van Wyk). Two of his songs, “Cape Flats” and “Stamina”, were used in the multi-award-winning movie Four Corners.
Roxanne was mighty impressed with Cream Machine when producer Melissa showed her one of his music videos at a pre-production meeting. Soon after, Roxanne had a flash of inspiration: The rapper should not only write a track for the film but also play the role of Boentjie.
So, who is Boentjie?
Roxanne fills us in: “Now Boentjie is that guy we all know. He is the guy in the community who sorts you out when you’re in trouble. Boentjie has the cars and the guns and rolls in money. As we say on the Flats, Boentjie het lyn. He basically fears nothing and nobody. Everybody knows when Boentjie steps in, the heat will be on, and things are going to happen.”
Roxanne says the track Cream Machine wrote for the Die Blokke amplifies the short film’s edgy Cape Flats vibe.
Once the film was in the can, the crew returned to the Elsie’s River and Avon locations to shoot the music video for this new Cream Machine song. They also filmed in the rapper’s own hood in Kuilsrivier.
You can click here to watch the video. But be warned: It’s an earworm, and it might be stuck in your head for days.
Die Blokke is screened at the Silwerskerm Film Festival on Wednesday, 23 August, at 10:30 and will be available on kykNET and Showmax later.