Panic Mechanic (1996)★ 6.1/10

ZA · 102 min · December 1, 1996

• Comedy

Directed by: David Lister

Written by: Leon Schuster, Gus Silber, André Scholtz

After Hanky Pranky (alias Schucks), star of a candid camera TV show, loses his job to affirmative action, he applies for a job at a stress academy. It's not long before Schucks discovers that his boss, Jack Paddaman, is morally crooked, but it's too late: the employment contract is signed and sealed. A year later, Schucks is no better off. However, his candid-camera videos that poke fun at all sectors of post-1994 South Africa prove a big hit with stressed-out government ministers. Then the President asks Paddaman to make a movie to benefit street children, and Schucks and his pals do all the hard work while Paddaman plans how he can get hold of the profits from the video sales. Add a scatterbrained secretary, a lovelorn traffic cop, and a cunning street kid, and you have a roll-in-the-aisles comedy with a distinctly South African flavour.