Based on the internationally popular stage musical written by Bertha Egnos and Gail Lakier, this film had more production problems than Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), Elaine May's Ishtar (1987), Michael Lehmann's Hudson Hawk (1991) and Kevin Reynolds' Waterworld (1995) put together. So serious were these issues that producer and director Tommie Meyer took his workprint to Russia to search for investors and then when that venture failed, he searched for local investors and offered his expensive Italian car as a prize.
All attempts to attract investors failed and Meyer - the one-time boss of South Africa's biggest filmmaking studio, Kavaliers Films - declared bankruptcy, his film studios in Randburg on Northcliff Hill were sold off, later torn down to be replaced by what is now known as the Northcliff Ridge Eco Park and his film was sold to a consortium headed by film producer Johann Schutte.
New inserts and a sub-plot involving two estranged American brothers - one, an embittered writer (Jan-Michael Vincent) and the other, a diplomat (Maxwell Caulfield) who reconnect with each other after bringing peace to Africa via the protagonists of this film - were filmed in California by Don Hulette a few years later and the film was released to cinemas here in 1994 but was not the success everyone had hoped for. The best of these scenes shows Jan-Michael Vincent driving around Los Angeles, listening to the song The Warrior on his car's sound system.
Failure or not, the film's music lingers - remixed and reworked by Mbongeni Ngema and others - as does the cinematography by James Robb SASC, including the final shot of the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in full flow with a heavenly rainbow encompassing the shot and the sounds of an angelic choir making people born there like myself cry genuine tears for a home very long last seen and very long since lost.
All attempts to attract investors failed and Meyer - the one-time boss of South Africa's biggest filmmaking studio, Kavaliers Films - declared bankruptcy, his film studios in Randburg on Northcliff Hill were sold off, later torn down to be replaced by what is now known as the Northcliff Ridge Eco Park and his film was sold to a consortium headed by film producer Johann Schutte.
New inserts and a sub-plot involving two estranged American brothers - one, an embittered writer (Jan-Michael Vincent) and the other, a diplomat (Maxwell Caulfield) who reconnect with each other after bringing peace to Africa via the protagonists of this film - were filmed in California by Don Hulette a few years later and the film was released to cinemas here in 1994 but was not the success everyone had hoped for. The best of these scenes shows Jan-Michael Vincent driving around Los Angeles, listening to the song The Warrior on his car's sound system.
Failure or not, the film's music lingers - remixed and reworked by Mbongeni Ngema and others - as does the cinematography by James Robb SASC, including the final shot of the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in full flow with a heavenly rainbow encompassing the shot and the sounds of an angelic choir making people born there like myself cry genuine tears for a home very long last seen and very long since lost.