1994 - in five days the first South African democratic elections will take place. Tensions are high throughout the land, and no less so in Triomf, the poor white suburb of Johannesburg that was built on the ruins of the mixed-race community of Sophiatown.

The Benade family, who’d be considered hillbillies in the USA (Uncle Treppie fixes fridges, Pop’s a railway pensioner, and his wife Mol used to sell flowers in the street, and their son, Lambert, is a slow-witted youth prone to violent fits) are so worried about the elections that they’re prepared for an escape north ‘when the shit hits the fan!’ Already things are not what they used to be in Triomf with ‘coloured’ neighbours having rowdy barbecues, and there’s a black family moving in across the street.

The action of the film revolves around the dynamics within the Benade family. These are highly-strung, often horrendous and consistently hilarious. Key events include : Pop’s successful gambling escapade in the big city which ends in a celebration dinner at a fast-food restaurant ; the acquisition by Lambert of a revolver at a city rubbish dump where his African friend Sonny actually lives ; the family’s accidental involvement in a Peace March which they initially misconceive to be the start of the revolution ; and an operatic fight with their neighbours about noise on a Saturday night.

The interaction between Treppie and Lambert is the driving force behind the story. Treppie’s not just fed up with Lambert, but with the family’s poverty, their suffocating social isolation, and everything they stand for including their own history as Afrikaners which he sees as clouded by distortions, lies and pretence. Treppie doesn’t really know what the solution to all this is, but the new South Africa is on its way, and he wants change.

Co-incidence would have it that Lambert’s 21st birthday is on the first day of polling, and Uncle Treppie plans a special present for him : a meeting with a girl he’s met who is kind and understanding and who might find a soft spot for him. What Treppie really wants is to get Lambert out of the house and out of his life at any price.

The climax is truly explosive after Lambert discovers that his prospective girlfriend is a whore, and after Treppie, in his mad desperation, reveals a dark ‘family secret’ that explains why the young man is such a genetic ‘monster’. But in the end it will be Lambert and his friend Sonny who triumph over Treppie.