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The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island

In the first part of my interview with Interview with John Barker, Bronté Snell and Shamilla Miller about The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island, which screened as part of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, we discussed character development, bringing the female characters to the fore and doing scuba diving stunts in open water in one of the world's most popular places for great white sharks to hang out. It's a sequel which involves Shamilla and Bronté's characters concocting a daring scheme to spring the male members of their family from jail on a reopened Robben Island You don't need to have seen the first one to follow it, but the idea to explain the events of that film – and keep viewers from losing track in this one – by using a Greek-style chorus came about due to the success of the town crier.

One of the unheralded delights of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival was John Barker’s spirited musical heist comedy The Umbrella Men, which saw a group of friends set up an elaborate scheme to rob a corrupt bank and thereby save their beloved club from a scheming developer. Although that film ended joyfully, as the title of this film suggests, they didn’t get away with it as neatly and completely as they thought.

Back at Toronto for a second year, the original team now presents a scenario which sees heroes Jerome (Jacques De Silva) and Mortimer (Keenan Arrison) picked up by the police and locked up on a reopened Robben Island, haunting symbol of Cape Town’s past. Unwilling to take their chances on a judicial system which could take years to kick into gear, Jerome’s partner Keisha (Shamilla Miller) and loyal friend Mila (Bronté Snell) have to figure.

Bronté Snell and Shamilla Miller in The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island

At last year's Toronto International Film Festival, one of the highlights was lively South African musical comedy heist film The Umbrella Men, which featured a gang of amateurs led by reluctant musician Jerome (Jacques De Silva) who come up with an elaborate scheme to steal money from a corrupt bank and thereby save their beloved club. Equally lively were the interviews with director John Barkers and stars Jaques De Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenan Arrison and Bronté Snell which followed, given that they had never expected to find themselves on the world stage. This year they're back in Toronto with a sequel, The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island - which, as you can imagine, means that the seemingly perfect getaway in the first film turned out to have complications.

This time around, the female characters have moved to the fore,...

Jaques De Silva in The Umbrella Men

John Barker's music-filled heist comedy thriller The Umbrella Men was one of the most entertaining film s to screen at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, and if you've read the first part of my interview with director John Bsrker and stars Jaques De Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenan Arrison and Bronté Snell, you'll have noticed that it seems like it was just as much fun to make. In the second half of our conversation, we discussed favourite moments, the importance of getting the chemistry right, and the excitement of hitting the festival circuit.

I mention a line in the film about the importance of not basing a heist on what you’ve seen in recent films.

“Yeah, I mean, we had to use that,” says John. “And also, because the heist is such a popular genre and there are so many films,...

Bronté Snell, Rob van Vuuren, Joey Rasdien, Jaques De Silva and Keenan Arrison in The Umbrella Men

One of the most enjoyable heist movies to reach the screen in recent years, Toronto International Film Festival hit The Umbrella Men follows a group of musicians who decide to rob a bank in order to save their beloved nightclub and community hub, covering up the activities, covering up their activities with Capetown’s annual Minstrel Carnival. It’s a wildly entertaining ride, and very much in keeping with the character of the team behind it, director John Barker and lead actors Jaques De Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenean Arrison and Bronté Snell, all of whom were in high spirits when we got together for an interview, despite a long day packed with promotional work. John kicked off the discussion, talking about how the project began.

“I've made a slice of life film and it did really well,...

Exclusive: AMC Networks streamers Sundance Now and Umc have inked a deal for the North American, Caribbean, Canadian, and UK rights to South African horror series Dead Places.

Created by Gareth Crocker, who is behind Shadow, Netflix’s first South African original series, Dead Places is co-produced by France’s Canal+ and Johannesburg-based Motion Story. It premieres in summer next year.

The story centers on an author who has dedicated his career to solving paranormal cases, returning home to South Africa to investigate the biggest mystery of his life: His sister’s death in a water canal 20 years ago.

The series stars Anthony Oseyemi (Agent), Rea Rangaka (Madiba), Shamilla Miller (Blood and Water) David Butler (Maze Runner: The Death Cure), David James (District 9), Luthuli Dlamini (The Furnace), S’Dumo Mtshali (Avenged), and Pallance Dladla (Hard to Get).

Crocker created, wrote, and directed Dead Places. He also serves as an executive...

Exclusive: Gareth Crocker, the South African writer, director and award-winning author, has signed for representation across TV and film with Los Angeles based Cultivate Entertainment.

Crocker is most known in the biz for being the creator, writer and director of Netflix’s first South African original series, the thriller Shadow, which debuted on the platform last year. It followed an ex-cop suffering from congenital analgesia who takes vigilante justice into his own hands in the criminal underworld of Johannesburg.

Crocker is now in post-production on the under-the-radar anthology project Dead Places. The show has financing from French major Canal Plus, which has taken rights for French-speaking territories, and is being co-produced with local outfit Motion Story.

Anthony Oseyemi, Rea Rangaka and Shamilla Miller lead the series’ cast. It tells the story of a world-renowned paranormal expert and UK-based author who travels to his native South Africa to write his latest book.

Few stories in history have such a clear starting point as the feud of Troy and Sparta, as told by Homer in the annals of Greek mythology. A literal classic tale of affection, duty, honor, family, and betrayal that plays out on a bloody stage, the aftermath of Paris and Helen’s legendary affair is the stuff that poetry and mythology are made of.

Perhaps it’s because the story has been told so many times before, or because its characters seem destined to a fate already predetermined by thousands of years of its telling, but the new Netflix/BBC co-production “Troy: Fall of a City” feels timeless in precisely the same way that all other incarnations of the story have. Without much reinvention, except to maybe appease some of the spectacle that guides one the biggest shows on television right now, it’s not so much an adaptation of the story for current times,...