Dirkie: Lost in the Desert (Jamie Uys, 1970)

“One of the most…
TRAUMATIZING AND SADISITIC ‘FAMILY MOVIES’ EVER MADE.”
                                                 The San Francisco Bay Guardian

The Most Amazing Adventure A Boy Ever Lived Through
Now On Blu-Ray For The First Time Ever!

Filmmaker Jamie Uys (THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY) cast his own son as a sickly eight year-old boy stranded with his pet dog in the Kalahari Desert, “one of the most rugged and desolate regions on the face of the earth.” The result is a children’s feature so punishing and merciless that it has been nicknamed “The Passion of the Dirkie.” Severin Films proudly presents the “sadistic yet hilarious” (Ilovehotdogs.net) South African survival movie about a boy menaced by plain crashes, infernos, hungry hyenas, angry elephants, spitting cobras, stinging scorpions, dwindling cough medicine, dehydration, and a grueling landscape. Beautifully rendered in Techniscope and Technicolor despite nightmarish shooting conditions that took the film’s crew almost 7,000 miles through the wilderness of Namibia, DIRKIE: LOST IN THE DESERT set South African box office records on its release and traumatized select children all around the world.

“We’re all the better for receiving…
THIS ODDBALL ALL-AGES TRIP INTO AN ARID APOCALYPSE.”
Birth. Movies. Death

Special Features:

  • English and Afrikaans Theatrical Release Versions
  • New Commentary with Star Wynand Uys and Film Scholar Ernest Mathijs
  • … And Your Little Dog Too – An Interview with Producer Boet Troskie
  • Trailers
  • Poster Gallery
  • BONUS FILM: Papam Pasivadu, a Telegu-language re-make from India

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Make Mine Severin Kids!

Make Mine Criterion! loves movies and wants great physical editions of all our favourite titles, particularly from certain labels. MMC! imagines high-minded releases from the eminently respectable Criterion Collection, deep-dives into genre by horror and cult impresarios Arrow Video, and popcorn flattery for commercial fare with Shout Select. These labels and imprints probably stand as the respective standards for their particular brands of cinema, however there are brilliant releases being done by many others. Studios and labels like Warner Archive, Arbelos Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Indicator, Kino, Vinegar Syndrome, Scream Factory, Synapse Films, Mondo Macabro, and others continue to release stand-out editions of deserving (and undeserving) films.

With that in mind, MMC! wants to celebrate the launch of Severin Films’ latest imprint, Severin Kids! The company dedicated to “rescuing, restoring and releasing the most controversial and provocative features from around the world” has launched a label devoted to the mining the strange and unsettling peripheries of children’s cinema. Three stacked releases have been announced thus far: the surreal Canadian “mind-roaster,” The Peanut Butter Solution; Al Adamson’s ’80s oddity, Carnival Magic; and the “Threads for kids” animated ordeal of When the Wind Blows. In honour of Severin’s unique and brilliant new project, MMC!’s next hard media wish will be for an imagined edition of a potential Severin Kids title. More will follow as well and hopefully Make Mine Severin Kids! will become a recurring series here at MMC!

And if this imprint is new to you, feast your eyes on these nutty trailers!

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