Directed by Joshua Rous
In Lucky Fish, sardines and sequins collide in the most unexpected feel-good gem of the year. Joshua Rous, a filmmaker known for wearing many hats: director, writer, producer and editor brings us a delightfully corny yet emotionally honest tale about beauty, sacrifice, and the ‘peculiar’ power of pageantry.
The premise alone is enough to hook you: a struggling sardine-canning factory launches a beauty contest to save itself from collapse. The prize? The unforgettable, slightly tragic title of “Miss Pillay Pilchards”. From the moment it opens, the film invites you in with a wink and a heart. It’s the kind of comedy that feels handcrafted with care. You find yourself strangely invested in who wins, even if the crown is more fish tin than tiara.
What truly works here is how smoothly the film flows. The story doesn’t trip over itself with gimmicks. The stakes are clear. The conflicts are grounded. And while the characters might feel exaggerated at first, Rous and his cast know exactly what they’re doing, each character is fleshed out with just enough detail to root for (or laugh at), all while maintaining a sincere emotional arc. They’re a bit over-the-top, sure, but they’re also loveable, layered, and surprisingly human.
The music? A pure delight. It doesn’t just accompany the story, it lifts it. Adding sparkle and rhythm, the score creates a buoyancy that keeps the comedy from dragging and the sentimentality from sinking. Even during slower moments, the soundtrack ensures you’re still having a good time.
Rous, a SAFTA-winning screenwriter (Black Tax, High Rollers, Geraamtes in die Kas), knows how to walk the line between heartfelt and ridiculous. And Lucky Fish is all the better for it. It’s a film you can watch with your 9-year-old niece and your sardonic older brother, a perfect wind-down movie after a long, soul-sapping day.
In the end, Lucky Fish isn’t trying to be edgy or groundbreaking, it’s trying to make you laugh, feel something warm, and maybe, just maybe, believe in beauty queens made of sardines. And indeed Mahatma the butcher is a wise man and we need to listen to him often !
Catch the film at DIFF: https://ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za/diff46/lucky-fish/
Screening Schedule:
17 Jul 19:00 Suncoast 1
26 Jul 14:30 Suncoast 8
27 Jul 12:00 Watercrest 1
2 Aug 17:00 The Bioscope
2 Aug 17:00 The Labia
This review emanates from the Talent Press programme, an initiative of Talents Durban in collaboration with the Durban FilmMart Institute and FIPRESCI. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author (Gloria Nkatha) and cannot be considered as constituting an official position of the organisers.
