Synopsis
SIAFU
Contemporary Drama of former enemies bonding as they battle ants
WGAw Reg. #994788
A warrior driver ant pushes through a forest of hairs. Human fingers try to crush her and she jams her mandibles into the flesh.
A white soldier waiting in ambush yelps, his commander, twenty-five year-old DAG CORLANDER gesturing to keep quiet. Dag surveils the black guerilla force setting explosives on a bridge. The leader of the guerillas, twenty-one year-old ZEBI MOSHONGO, is suddenly alert. A firefight erupts, the guerillas retreat leaving one dead behind. When Dag returns to his farm, he finds his house burned, his wife dead, though their young son, NICK, is all right. He curses the war.
Twenty years later, Dag and Nick are at the general store in the dusty African town loading bags of pest control in their truck. Zebi rides up on a bike towing a small trailer and has to beg the store owner to let him have four bags of pest control on credit. Zebi has been given half of Dag’s farm by the government’s land redistribution program. The two farms are a stark contrast. Dag’s is lush, Zebi’s is struggling. Dag’s house is extensive, Zebi’s is primitive. Dag lives there with his son Nick, his daughter-in-law ALLISON and his nine year-old granddaughter JENNIFER. Zebi has a wife, TOLANA, and a daughter HULANA and a son ETANA.
Zebi gets no help from Dag until a group of ex-soldiers try to take Dag’s remaining half of the farm. Zebi tells them he is the actual owner and they leave. A wealthy investor later shows up to purchase from Zebi Dag’s half of the farm, and Dag learns that Zebi actually does own all the land. When Zebi’s son is sick and Dag offers to fly them to the hospital in the capitol, he forces Zebi to sign over half the farm to him., letting Zebi believe he won’t help his son if he doesn’t sign. The investor shows up with surveyors, telling Dag the contract he forced Zebi to sign is worthless. Zebi, angry at Dag’s blackmail, refuses to reconsider the sale.
Dag and Nick come upon a woman in the road near the farm covered in driver ants. They rescue her and she implores them to save her husband. They find a swarm of tens of millions of driver ants moving across the countryside towards the farm, the woman’s dead husband already being stripped by the ants.
The battle is on and Zebi joins the fight with them. They try poison and flooding a dry wash and setting up a burning strip attempting to divert the swarm, but each attempt fail. Finally, Dag and Zebi fly over the swarm trying to kill the queen with explosives. The plane crashes in the midst and Dag has to carry Zebi who has a broken leg. They use the explosives to clear patches ahead of them, sprinting through the swarm to each clear spot, but getting out appears hopeless. They make a desperate attempt that fails, but at the last moment are rescued by the others fighting through the swarm on a bulldozer from the farm.
They’ve lost the battle, their crops stripped bare, but they’re happy to be alive. The wealthy investor arrives to pay Zebi for the farm, but Zebi turns him down, selling back to Dag his half the farm for a single dollar. The investor calls Zebi a fool and tells him without money he won’t be able to ride out the disaster and replant, but Dag responds that he will make it—because he has friends.
Dag and Zebi and the others are hard at work building Zebi a fine new house, while in the bushveldt the ants are hard at work building themselves a fine new nest.
SIAFU
Contemporary Drama of former enemies bonding as they battle ants
WGAw Reg. #994788
A warrior driver ant pushes through a forest of hairs. Human fingers try to crush her and she jams her mandibles into the flesh.
A white soldier waiting in ambush yelps, his commander, twenty-five year-old DAG CORLANDER gesturing to keep quiet. Dag surveils the black guerilla force setting explosives on a bridge. The leader of the guerillas, twenty-one year-old ZEBI MOSHONGO, is suddenly alert. A firefight erupts, the guerillas retreat leaving one dead behind. When Dag returns to his farm, he finds his house burned, his wife dead, though their young son, NICK, is all right. He curses the war.
Twenty years later, Dag and Nick are at the general store in the dusty African town loading bags of pest control in their truck. Zebi rides up on a bike towing a small trailer and has to beg the store owner to let him have four bags of pest control on credit. Zebi has been given half of Dag’s farm by the government’s land redistribution program. The two farms are a stark contrast. Dag’s is lush, Zebi’s is struggling. Dag’s house is extensive, Zebi’s is primitive. Dag lives there with his son Nick, his daughter-in-law ALLISON and his nine year-old granddaughter JENNIFER. Zebi has a wife, TOLANA, and a daughter HULANA and a son ETANA.
Zebi gets no help from Dag until a group of ex-soldiers try to take Dag’s remaining half of the farm. Zebi tells them he is the actual owner and they leave. A wealthy investor later shows up to purchase from Zebi Dag’s half of the farm, and Dag learns that Zebi actually does own all the land. When Zebi’s son is sick and Dag offers to fly them to the hospital in the capitol, he forces Zebi to sign over half the farm to him., letting Zebi believe he won’t help his son if he doesn’t sign. The investor shows up with surveyors, telling Dag the contract he forced Zebi to sign is worthless. Zebi, angry at Dag’s blackmail, refuses to reconsider the sale.
Dag and Nick come upon a woman in the road near the farm covered in driver ants. They rescue her and she implores them to save her husband. They find a swarm of tens of millions of driver ants moving across the countryside towards the farm, the woman’s dead husband already being stripped by the ants.
The battle is on and Zebi joins the fight with them. They try poison and flooding a dry wash and setting up a burning strip attempting to divert the swarm, but each attempt fail. Finally, Dag and Zebi fly over the swarm trying to kill the queen with explosives. The plane crashes in the midst and Dag has to carry Zebi who has a broken leg. They use the explosives to clear patches ahead of them, sprinting through the swarm to each clear spot, but getting out appears hopeless. They make a desperate attempt that fails, but at the last moment are rescued by the others fighting through the swarm on a bulldozer from the farm.
They’ve lost the battle, their crops stripped bare, but they’re happy to be alive. The wealthy investor arrives to pay Zebi for the farm, but Zebi turns him down, selling back to Dag his half the farm for a single dollar. The investor calls Zebi a fool and tells him without money he won’t be able to ride out the disaster and replant, but Dag responds that he will make it—because he has friends.
Dag and Zebi and the others are hard at work building Zebi a fine new house, while in the bushveldt the ants are hard at work building themselves a fine new nest.