Experiencing Interruptions?

The Chemo Club

In the 1970’s they were photobook Goddesses appearing in magazines pored over by oversexed adolescent boys. Now forty years later Lulu and Faith are pensioners living in the golden twilight of their lives. The problem is their old age is not golden; their pensions have been stolen by the flamboyantly wealthy, charismatically ruthless entrepreneur Grant Roberts and he’s about to run off to Australia with their money. They summon their inner Goddess; co-opt the dysfunctional nerd in need of a lay Sivu, their old photographer, Gerhard and plan a daring Robin Hood heist with a clapped out Combi. These four misfits and Gerhard’s Yorkshire Terrier “Killer” make up the Chemo Club, out to make one very big score and the payday of a lifetime. It’s a case of little old ladies rule as the tension rises until the exciting climactic robbery where everything goes very wrong – and very right for these four oddball “criminals”

  • Thandi Brewer
    Director
  • Thandi Brewer
    Writer
  • Bridget Pickering
    Producer
    Hotel Rwanda,
  • Lillian Dube
    Key Cast
    Gog' Helen, Soul City
  • Brumelda Van Rensburg
    Key Cast
    Dancing in the Forest , Brutal Glory
  • Tobie Cronje
    Key Cast
    Game for Vultures, Any Man’s Death, Options (1988), Being Human , Pet to the Rescue
  • Rea Rangaka
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 32 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 10, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    South Africa
  • Country of Filming:
    South Africa
  • Language:
    Afrikaans, English
  • Shooting Format:
    Red, 2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Joburg Film Festival
    Johannesburg
    South Africa
    November 4, 2016
    South AFrica
Director Biography - Thandi Brewer

Thandi Brewer is an award winning writer, director, script editor
and facilitator. She has written many TV series, the latest being Usindiso/ Redemption!! which she produced in conjunction with Bridget Pickering. It was a regional semi finalist for best drama series for the International Emmy’s in 2008, won 4 SAFTAs and
was hugely successful playing to 4.3 million viewers a night on SABC 1. She has written International film scripts,
like Paris Le Cap, Cheap Lives, The Weatherman, 12 Dancing Princesses, Story of An African Farm, Corner Pocket and The Chemo Club. She is a cancer survivor and The Chemo
Club marks her feature film directorial debut.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

“The Chemo Club” is a quirky, sometimes moving heist movie with a unique spin that shies away from the normal testosterone and machismo. It’s an off-beat comedy caper, with a very South African, deadly serious female -empowering heart.
I wrote “Chemo Club” as a tribute to a remarkable woman who left school at 12, got her honours degree at 74, and was doing a one woman show where she stood on her head and did the splits until three months before her death at 77. She was impossible, Irish, intransigent... and my mother. And she taught me many things: there’s no such thing as too late. Wrinkles don’t hurt. You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. It’s better to grow old disgracefully. Never surrender, man the barricades and fight the system particularly in a society that over values youth and
undervalues age. Then there’s something else: two women who never knew each other, divided by history, and the relationship that they forge in the present when they finally do meet after 45 years. So it’s a chick flick. It’s about the power of friendship at a time when Facebook is the currency of relationships. A story of unlikely friendships and underdogs triumphing over the apparently insurmountable odds of cancer, bankruptcy and a society that ignores them.