Hollywood’s most unusual plagiarism arrives at the B-Retina film festival with the Brazilian version of “Star Wars” and the South African plagiarism of “E.T. The Extraterrestrial”
The B-RETINA festival will screen some of the most unusual plagiarism of Hollywood blockbusters, such as the Brazilian version of ‘Star Wars’ and the South African plagiarism of ‘E.T. The Extraterrestrial’, two films that will be part of a large selection of “impossible cinematic mixtures”, as the organizers of the event point out.
Both films are scheduled for Friday, September 20, within a day that promises to be “as extravagant as it is irreverent”. They are titles “of a more than questionable quality, but whose viewing seems mandatory for those cinephiles who seek to have fun with totally out of the ordinary experiences”, in the words of David Bravo, head of communication of the festival.
‘Os Trapalhões na Guerra dos Planetas’ (1978), a film also known as the ‘Brazilian Star Wars’, can be seen at 5:30 p.m. and is a parody of the aforementioned galactic saga starring the famous comedy group Os Trapalhões, which marked an era in Brazilian television. The characters are comic versions of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader or Chewbacca, in a film that combines rudimentary special effects and local jokes, and that promises large doses of nostalgia and laughter for lovers of bizarre cinema.
On the other hand, ‘Nukie’ (1987), the South African copy of ‘E.T.’, will be screened within the traditional “Versus Session”, where B-RETINA will face Autotracking Fest, the guest event of this edition, in a contest in a double session format starting at 10:00 p.m. Each festival will select a film to compete, with ‘Nukie’ (1987) being chosen by Autotracking, while B-RETINA will present ‘Monsturd’ (2003), a shameless film about homicidal excrement. At the end of the screenings, the audience will be able to vote for their favorite feature film, adding an extra touch of excitement to the evening.
Directed by Sias Odendaal and Michael Pakleppa, ‘Nukie’ has been listed as one of the worst films ever made. The film is about an alien who, after landing on Earth, seeks the help of two children to reunite with his brother captured by the United States government.
Despite the high expectations that its poster evoked as an ‘E.T.’ in an African version, the production was plagued by problems, from lousy animatronics to chaotic editing that even forced the authors to re-edit the film in an attempt to save it. Even so, ‘Nukie’ has managed to carve out a place in the history of B-movie cinema as a paradigmatic example of what should not be done.
CROSSOVERS AND IMPOSSIBLE MIXES
The Anglo-Saxon concept of “crossover” in its most eccentric version is the common thread of the ninth edition of B-RETINA, whose programming will be “the most extravagant and surprising to date”, according to those responsible. In this way, low-budget films that defy conventions and where impossible genres and references are mixed, will take over the screen of the Auditori Sant Ildefons, offering the public the opportunity to explore the most unexpected corners of world cinema.
