''Spud'' is a 2010 South African

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by Donovan Marsh, based on the novel of the same name by

John van de Ruit John Howard van de Ruit (born 20 April 1975) is a South African novelist, actor, playwright and producer. He has been a professional actor, playwright and producer since 1998. He was born in Durban and educated at Michaelhouse, where he stayed ...

. The film stars

Troye Sivan Troye Sivan Mellet ( ; born 5 June 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter and actor. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with Universal Music Australia, EMI Australia in 2013 and ...

as the title character, alongside

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

Jason Cope Jason Cope is a British and South African actor. He starred and played multiple roles in the 2009 Academy Award-nominated science fiction film ''District 9''. Career In 2004, Cope played a variety of roles on the second season of the SABC1 comed ...

and

Tanit Phoenix Tanit Phoenix (born 24 September 1980) is a South African fashion model, actress and makeup artist. She is known for her swimwear and lingerie photo shoots after appearing in a '' Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' in 2003 and in '' GQ'' maga ...

. It was released in South Africa on 3 December 2010.

Plot

In 1990 South Africa, fourteen-year-old John Milton (

) spends his first year at an elite boarding school for boys. When John arrives for the first time at the school, he gets nicknamed "Spud" by the other boys because he has yet to experience puberty. All eight boys in his dormitory get nicknames. They are also called the "Crazy Eight". Spud finds it difficult to make friends and fit in. He befriends Mr Edly, a teacher nicknamed "The Guv", after he is the only one in the English class to pass an exam. The Guv frequently lends English literature books to Spud and invites him to lunch regularly. Spud soon realizes that Edly has marital problems, and is an alcoholic. While back at home for the holidays, Spud falls in love with Debbie, the daughter of one of his mother's friends, whom he nicknames "The Mermaid." When Spud returns to the school, he sees a flyer for the school play ''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, ...

''. Spud decides to audition so he can fit in. He ends up landing the lead role of Oliver. During practice, Spud meets Amanda, a girl from the nearby school St. Catherine's, and immediately falls for her. But he soon realises that she has a boyfriend already, and he cannot form a relationship with her without cheating on Debbie, whom he still loves. He seeks the advice of his roommate Gecko, who tells Spud to pretend he loves another girl named Christine, in order to make Amanda jealous. Spud and Gecko begin to build a strong friendship and they occasionally visit a rock at the top of the hill near the school. In the fourth term, Gecko is diagnosed with cerebral malaria that he got during his holiday to Mozambique. A few days later, he passes away. Spud mourns the death of Gecko and the whole school attends his funeral service in the school's chapel. Spud performs in the school's play and gets a standing ovation. After the performance, he is dragged away from the post-performance celebration by Amanda, and they go to a nearby field. There, she tells him to kiss her. Spud stops at the last moment and rejects her, deciding to stay true to Debbie. He offers to give Debbie a tour of the school, and kisses her in the middle of the quadrangle, which his dorm-mates witness from their window. After he returns, he is praised by the group, and finally fits in. On the final day of the year, Spud is sitting on the same rock he and Gecko used to frequent overlooking the school, and remarks that "God's greatest gift is choice... but sometimes, God gives us no choice. He deals us the cards, we play them."

Cast

as John "Spud" Milton *

as Mr. "The Guv" Edly, an alcoholic English teacher *

as Mrs. "Eve" Wilson *

Jeremy Crutchley Jeremy Crutchley is a South African actor. He played roles in the television series '' Salem'', '' Black Sails'', '' Leonardo'', '' Constantine'' and ''Hannibal'' and several theatre and cinema works in a career spanning for more than four decad ...

as Mr. Glockenshpeel ("The Glock") * Jamie Royal as Henry "Gecko" Barker * Sven Ruygrok as Robert "Rambo" Black * Josh Goddard as Charlie "Mad Dog" Hooper * Thomas Burne as Vern "Rain Man" Blackadder * Byron Langley as Simon Brown * Travis Hornsby as Alan "Boggo" Greenstein * Blessing Xaba as Sidney "Fatty" Sibeko-Scott * Aaron McIlroy as Mr. Milton, Spud's father * Julie Summers as Ms. Milton, Spud's mother * Genna Blair as Debbie "The Mermaid" *

as Mr. "Sparerib" Wilson, Eve's husband * Charlbi Dean Kriek as Amanda * Alex McGregor as Christine * Graham Weir as Mr. "Viking" Richardson * Siobhan Hodgson as Mrs Roberts * Ryan Mayne as Julian * James Murray as Bert * Darren Frances as Pike * Ricky Cruz as Devries * Sylvaine Strike as San Sister * Lehasa Moloi as P.J. Luthuli, head boy of Michaelhouse * Brenda Ngxoli as Innocence, the Miltons' house maid * Terry Norton as The Guv's wife * Christine le Brocq as Mrs "Wombat" Milton, Spud's grandmother * Ben Voss as Mr. Lily * Patrick Kenny as Reverend Bishop * Shaeleen Tobin as Marge, The Mermaid's mother * Liam Magner as "Hairy Gavin" *

as Mr Lennox * Laura Santoni as the Librarian * Harry Wilcox as Student C

Production

Development

The film is entirely privately financed by South African investors, giving the filmmakers full

creative control Artistic control or creative control is a term commonly used in media production, such as movies, television, music production, or some other cultural product. A person, or the studio or production company, with artistic control has the authority ...

Casting

Auditioning began in August 2009 and took place in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, and

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

. Audition videos were also accepted via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Hundreds of boys were auditioned for the role of ''Spud''. Producer Ross Garland's uncle saw South-African born Australian actor

on Australian television and wrote to Garland about him. Van de Ruit described Sivan as "exactly the way I pictured ''Spud''." Sivan who has been singing professionally since he was nine does his own singing in the film. The filmmakers initially thought

would be too young to play Sparerib but Garland said he "turns into a nasty housemaster as soon as he steps on set." Cope based his performance on a vice principal he once had.

Filming

Filming commenced on 8 March 2010 at the

Michaelhouse Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal, Balgowan valley in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The Spear’s Schools Index 2025 reco ...

boarding school in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and ended on 18 April 2010.

Release

The film was released on 3 December 2010 in South Africa, a week before the beginning of the December–January holidays for South African public schools. Garland and Van de Ruit have written a book about the making of the film which was released alongside the film. In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated R2.9 million. The film has received mainly positive reviews. Rory Tyson, the national sales manager for Nu Metro Films, called it "a success", "a national phenomenon" and "about 50% bigger than expected".

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on reviews from 10 critics. Dennis Harvey of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "This agreeable lightweight entertainment doesn’t stray far from boarding-school comedy templates".

Awards

''Spud'' won the

South African Film and Television Award The South African Film and Television Awards (sometimes referred to as the Golden Horns; often simply called the SAFTAs) is an annual South African awards ceremony hosted by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), to honour creative exce ...

for Best Editor (Megan Gill) and was nominated for five other SAFTAs, including Best Cinematographer (Lance Gewer), Best Sound Designer (Barry Donelly), Best Feature Film, Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film (

), and Best Supporting Actor in a Feature Film (Jamie Royal).

Criticism

The film was criticized by Justice

Edwin Cameron Edwin Cameron (born 15 February 1953 in Pretoria) is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one of Sou ...

of the Constitutional Court who wrote a letter to ''Spud'' producer Ross Garland saying that he saw in particular two scenes as "denigrating gays and lesbians". In one of these scenes "The Guv" played by John Cleese says that he would like to give all lesbians a good "rogering". The second scene is one in which the gay art teacher, coaching the school's worst rugby team, tells them that "more pressure from the rear" is needed. Producer Ross Garland said in a statement: "In the five years since ''Spud'' was published, and with millions of people having read the book and seen the movie, Justice Cameron is the first person to ever publicly take the view that the film is homophobic ..With readers and audiences across the country being moved by the story of a vulnerable boy who learns to find his own voice and thereby overcome the bullying and bigotry at his school in 1990, it is hard to fathom how Justice Cameron arrived at his opinion."Spud Attack Alarming
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Sequels

A sequel, titled '' Spud 2: The Madness Continues'' was released on 21 June 2013. A second sequel, '' Spud 3: Learning to Fly'', began filming on 22 June 2013 and was released on 28 November 2014 in South Africa.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spud 2010 films 2010s English-language films 2010s coming-of-age films 2010s high school films Films set in boarding schools English-language South African films Films about teacher–student relationships Films based on children's books Films based on South African novels Films set in 1990 Films set in South Africa Films shot in KwaZulu-Natal Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer direct-to-video films 2010 comedy-drama films South African comedy-drama films 2010s South African films