The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency meets the Prince Albert Movie Club

- Kallie Erasmus -

The magic of movies is alive and well in Prince Albert with fortnightly meetings of the town’s Movie Club.

Wednesday, 11 February saw a special, standing-room-only, sell-out meeting at which the Prince Albert Movie Club hosted the first public showing of the “The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”. Made for, and until now only ever previously shown on BBC TV, the production design of the film, which was shot entirely on location in Botswana, was by the town’s own Johnny Breedt of Lah-Di-Dah. Johnny also designed, amongst many others, the Academy Award-nominated “Hotel Rwanda” and local hit “Paljas” and kindly not only made the showing possible, but also introduced the film.

The meeting drew a record audience and R820.00 was raised for the Two Sisters Orphanage in Mpumalanga, a charity supported by Johnny and Yvette Breedt.

Judging by the response, Mma Precious Ramotswe, the unlikely heroine of the Alexander McCall Smith novels on which the film and subsequent TV Series is based, is as popular in the Karoo as she has become around the world.

The Movie Club is open to everybody and meets every fortnight in the Kevin Hough Gallery (posters are placed on the notice boards at Café Albert, the Tourism Bureau and Lah-Di-Dah). Membership fees (R5 per meeting) are either used to buy equipment or donated to a worthy cause – over the past 3 years more than R4 000.00 has been donated to the Fransie Pienaar Museum.