A series of misadventures fall within a campground in this really funny South African film featuring an ensemble cast.

A group of families are getting set to head to the AKTV Buffelspoort Resort to celebrate the holidays. The families include the Fouchés, the Khumalos, and the Venters. The man in charge of the campground, Oom Gert Louw, has learned that an inspector from the Tourism Grading Council is planning to show up so he is on edge along with his daughter Pop and his team. Gert is looking to get an additional star on the resort before he retires for good. However, things are not about to go as planned.

When Jan, the Fouché patriarch, shows up a little late, he learns the Khumalos have taken his spot.  Mr. Venter is suffering a major midlife crisis and his daughter Miemie’s behavior and eye candy ways are not helping at all. Jan and Ernest Khumalo find themselves at constant odds with each other, going as far as competing with each other intensely during a fishing competition. Dawid, one of the camp workers, learns his crush, singer Genevieve, is coming to perform and he wants to impress her. This is clearly going to be a weekend no one will forget.

An ensemble cast takes on this feel good and slapstick comedy from South Africa. It is basically a series of connected misadventures between everyone involved. No matter how small the role calls for, the hijinks stand out in this film. The core stories connect quite well as we have two families at each other’s throats, the boy with the crush, the overprotective father with the “hot” daughter, the celebrity seeking all the attention, and the camp owner who wants things to go right…we should also mention the kids who constantly pull pranks throughout the film to an unsuspecting group of female campers.

Louw Venter and Josias Moleele are hilarious as the patriarchs Jan and Ernest, who all because of a spot being taken, end up in an insane rivalry that at times gets a bit too intense in a comic manner. Juanita de Villers Velts and Zenande Mfenyane find themselves caught in the middle as the wives who at one point, almost go after each other, again due to a mixup. Jan gets so busy with his rivalry that it takes away time from his family, in which his two sons take full advantage and pull off pranks, with Kaz McFadden’s bumbling Kareltjie forced to take the blame sometimes and get himself in a series of slapstick antics that land him in hot water.

Then there’s the Venter family. Jurgen Hellberg’s Arnoldus is seriously going some sort of mid-life crisis and as a result, finds himself at times being a little overprotective of his daughter Miemie. When Miemie, played by WorldFilmGeek Hall of Famer Reine Swart, comes on the screen, it serves as the eye candy that makes everyone around her go completely crazy. When Arnoldus finds solace in the camp owner’s salon running daughter, it does lead to some arguing between he and his wife, but this being the film it is, it does become predictable.

Ruan Wessels’ Dawid finds himself on edge when he learns his crush, Marlee van der Merwe’s Genevieve, arrives to perform at the campground and thus, goes from confident to super nervous. Let’s not mention the LGBT+ couple who find themselves stepping consistently on dog feces, a prank from the Fouché boys and their reactions and confrontation to Oom Gert is quite funny to watch.

A wild series of interconnecting hijinks and all-around fun, Kampterrein is exactly the brand of comedy that this reviewer misses. No raunchiness needed and the ensemble cast are nothing short of great! We need more films like this!

WFG RATING: A

An Incense Films production. Director: Luhann Jansen. Producers: Morne Lane and Marcus Muller. Writers: Morne Lane and Marcus Muller; story by Muller and Therese Benade. Cinematography: Michael van Zyl. Editing: Michael van Zyl.

Cast: Louw Venter, Juanita de Villiers Velts, Josias Moleele, Zenande Mfenyane, Jurgen Hellberg, Edrien Erasmus, Reine Swart, Johan Botha, Kaz McFadden, Ruan Wessels, Sasha Strobel, Marlee van der Merwe.