The Angel, the Bicycle and the Chinaman's Finger

The Angel, the Bicycle and the Chinaman's Finger is a film written by Nicholas Ellenbogen, John Cundill and P.G. du Plessis, and directed by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Koos Roets.

The film's them is somewhat reminiscent of Gilda Blacher's 1998 film Inside Out

The film

Based on Nicholas Ellenbogen's play of A Nativity, the trilingual (Afrikaans, English and Zulu) film tells a hilarious story about a government backed effort to put on a multiracial production of a play production of a nativity play by the local post office's staff in a tiny backwater village, on the eve of the new democracy.

The script was written by Nicholas Ellenbogen, John Cundill and P.G. du Plessis, the film was directed by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Koos Roets (assisted by Liza de Villiers) and produced for M-Net, Sonneblom Films and Toron International by Edgar Bold, Riaan du Plessis, Carl Fischer, Anton Hayward, Katinka Heyns and Ian Ross. The film was released 1991 and distributed to theatres in South Africa by Ster-Kinekor Pictures in 1992.

The large cast consisted of: Brendan Grealy, Corrie Campbell, Ellis Pearson, Madoda Ncayiyana, Liz Szymczak, Greg Melvill-Smith, Regardt van den Bergh, Neill Solomon, Claire Wrogemann, Anthony Stevens, Bheki Mkhwane, Anthony Reade, Sophie Mgcina, Lindelani Buthelezi, Miems de Bruyn, Patricia Sanders, Paul Eilers, Sandra Ferreira, Colin Wing, Al Karaki, Liam Cundill, Esmael Texeira, Martin Mitchell, Luke Ellenbogen, Amy Ellenbogen, Annie Robinson, Bongani Zindela, Nicholas Ellenbogen, James Nkobo, Andrew Bosses, Mabel Mafudi, Gemima Tladi and Katinka Heyns (uncredited).

The technical crew included music by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Neill Solomon, cinematography by Koos Roets, film and sound editing by Avril Beukes, art direction by Leith Ridley, set decoration by Megan Havenga (credited as Megan Vermaak), costume design by Susan Howie, make-up and hair Anita van der Merwe, production management Genevieve Hofmeyr and final mix Mark Phillips. The rest of the crew included Raymond Bower, Michael Dreyer, Hennie Britton, Charles Evans, Nico Louw, Brian Nicholas, Leon Retief, Megan Vermaak, Andrew Bannister, Michael Kennedy, Jonathan Kvalsvig, Pam Laxen, Warren Longmore, Albert Mdunjana (credited as Abert Mbunjana), Petrus Modise, Johannes Mokonyama, James Robb, Sean Ryan, Colin Teifel, Marina Nel, Leon Retief, Wiebina Berrington, Hugh Barrett, Patti Putter, and Samantha Putter.

Sources

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438769/

http://africa-archive.com/za/the-angel-the-bicycle-and-the-chinamans-finger-1991

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