People’s personal journey to maintain their own private freedom can often lead them to also embark on protecting the rights of their neighborhoods. Actor Jaques Da Silva’s protagonist of Jerome is doing just that in the new crime comedy, ‘The Umbrella Men.’ As he returns to his hometown to contend with his father’s death, he not only tries to continue protecting his own freedom, but also begins to realize that he should also preserve the legacy of his family’s business, which serves as a spiritual home to their whole community.
John Barker co-wrote the script for the movie with Lev David and Philip Roberts. The filmmaker also directed, and served as a producer on, ‘The Umbrella Men.’ The comedy stars Jaques Da Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenan Arrison and Bronte Snell.
‘The Umbrella Men’ is having its international premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema Section at this month’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The comedy is having two more in-person screenings this week at the festival, including on Wednesday, September 14 at 9:30pm and on Friday, September 16 at 11:55am at the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto.
‘The Umbrella Men’ follows Jerome as he reluctantly returns home to the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town to bury his estranged father. While there, he learns he’s been bequeathed the Goema Club, the home of his father’s beloved minstrel troupe. The titular troupe, The Umbrella Men, is a mainstay band in the historic Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, which is celebrated every year since the early 19th century on January 2, marking the only day off Dutch colonists gave their enslaved captives from across the Indian Ocean.
Not unlike the creole carnivalesque traditions that were famous throughout the former Atlantic colonies, Cape Malay bands would merge Indigenous rhythms with settler aesthetics — in this case, influenced by the visiting early American minstrels enjoyed by the white settler class. The combined result, “Kaapse Klopse” as it is known, is considered a celebration of survival.
Along with the club, though, Jerome also inherits his father’s enemies, chief among them rival troupe leader Tariq Cupido (Abduragman Adams), as well as a million-ZAR debt to the bank. With the threat of the club’s foreclosure only weeks away, a desperate Jerome decides a bank heist, using the annual carnival as cover, is the only way to save the club — and his father’s legacy.
Barker, Da Silva, Miller, Arrison and Snell generously took the time this weekend to talk about co-penning, helming, producing and starring in ‘The Umbrella Men’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom. Among other things, the filmmaker, actors and actresses discussed how Barker approached his scribing, directorial and producing duties throughout the production; why Da Silva, Miller, Arrison and Snell were inspired to play their respective characters in the movie; and what it means to them that the comedy had its international premiere at TIFF.
Watch our exclusive video interview with Barker, Da Silva, Miller, Arrison and Snell on ‘The Umbrella Men’ above.
ShockYa's Karen Benardello exclusively interviews co-writer-director-producer John Barker and actors Jaques Da Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenan Arrison and Bronte Snell about their crime comedy, 'The Umbrella Men,' during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2022.