समाचार

One of the unheralded delights of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival was John Barker’s spirited musical heist comedy The Umbrella Men, which saw a group of friends set up an elaborate scheme to rob a corrupt bank and thereby save their beloved club from a scheming developer. Although that film ended joyfully, as the title of this film suggests, they didn’t get away with it as neatly and completely as they thought.

Back at Toronto for a second year, the original team now presents a scenario which sees heroes Jerome (Jacques De Silva) and Mortimer (Keenan Arrison) picked up by the police and locked up on a reopened Robben Island, haunting symbol of Cape Town’s past. Unwilling to take their chances on a judicial system which could take years to kick into gear, Jerome’s partner Keisha (Shamilla Miller) and loyal friend Mila (Bronté Snell) have to figure.

Bronté Snell and Shamilla Miller in The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island

At last year's Toronto International Film Festival, one of the highlights was lively South African musical comedy heist film The Umbrella Men, which featured a gang of amateurs led by reluctant musician Jerome (Jacques De Silva) who come up with an elaborate scheme to steal money from a corrupt bank and thereby save their beloved club. Equally lively were the interviews with director John Barkers and stars Jaques De Silva, Shamilla Miller, Keenan Arrison and Bronté Snell which followed, given that they had never expected to find themselves on the world stage. This year they're back in Toronto with a sequel, The Umbrella Men: Escape From Robben Island - which, as you can imagine, means that the seemingly perfect getaway in the first film turned out to have complications.

This time around, the female characters have moved to the fore,...