The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 black comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in The Gods Must Be Crazy series. Set in Southern Africa, the film stars South West African San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, a hunter-gatherer of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an aeroplane, and believes it to be a gift from their gods. When Xi sets out to return the bottle to the gods, his journey becomes intertwined with that of a biologist (Marius Weyers), a newly hired village school teacher (Sandra Prinsloo), and a band of guerrilla terrorists.

Plot

Xi and his San tribe live happily in the Kalahari Desert, away from industrial civilisation. One day, a glass Coca-Cola bottle, thrown out of an airplane by a pilot, falls to the soft ground unbroken. Xi's people assume the bottle to be a gift from the gods, just like plants and animals, finding countless new uses for it, such as curing animal hides, carrying water, grinding roots, rolling dough, and tracing decorative circular shapes. Only one glass bottle exists, however, and members of the tribe are constantly demanding its use while conflict arises in the erstwhile peaceful tribe. As a result, Xi decides to make a pilgrimage to the edge of the world to dispose of the divisive object.