Bakgat! is a 2008 South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n teen comedy film

Teen film

Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation...

 directed by Henk Pretorius and written by Pretorius and Danie Bester.

Plot summary

Katrien (Cherié van der Merwe) is dumped by her boyfriend, high school rugby star Werner (Altus Theart), so he can focus his energy on the sport. To get even, she makes a bet with her friends that she can make a star out of the school's dorkiest boy, Wimpie Koekemoer (Ivan Botha), by pretending to be his girlfriend. The awkward Koekemoer rises to the challenge but Katrien finds herself falling unexpectedly in love with him, until he realizes she is merely using him.

Production

Bakgat! was shot on location in Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

 and Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

 in 2007. Local high schools Waterkloof

Hoërskool waterkloof

Hoërskool Waterkloof is an Afrikaans high school situated in the wealthy eastern suburbs of Pretoria, South Africa. It had grown to become the largest Afrikaans school in the world by 2004, with 2,200 pupils and 140 teachers. It is also one of the top schools in Pretoria and has been...

 and Eldoraigne participated in the production and the 2007 teams of both schools play the high school rugby teams in the film. These students, and the students who appear as extras, are all credited at the end of the film. Most of the cast, according to reviewer Kgomotso Moncho, were recruited from the Tshwane University of Technology

Tshwane University of Technology

Tshwane University of Technology is a higher education institution in South Africa that came into being through a merger of three technikons — Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria....

, where many of the high school scenes were filmed.

This was the first film by director Pretorius, a television actor who had appeared as a regular cast member of the South African soapie Kruispad, and played in an episode of the HBO mini-series Generation Kill.

Reception

Bakgat! received mixed reviews, described by critics as amusing but cliched. Shaun de Waal described it as "an efficient attempt to replicate the American teen comedy," criticized it as "largely predictable" and deriding it's use of cartoonish stock characters such as "a mincing moffie thrown in for laughs."

Sequel

Bakgat 2 began filming in 2009 at the Potchefstroom Campus of North West University (PUK), with Henk Pretorius returning as director and Botha and van de Merwe returning in their roles as Wimpie and Katrien. They also filmed some scenes at Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University

North-West University

The North-West University is a newly merged institution from 1 January 2004 onwards with four campuses at Potchefstroom, Mafikeng, Vanderbijlpark and Mankwe. The Potchefstroom Campus is the largest, and the head office of the University is situated at this location...

.