You are here:

Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG

Name: Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG
Director: David Lister
Released: 1990
Duration: 92 min

Representation Score

3.9/10

Limited

1990

Director

David Lister

Runtime

92 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

The film uses satire to deconstruct international peacekeeping efforts, presenting the local Nambabwean experience as the main driver of the plot. While it provides a platform for post-colonial ability to act, it remains limited by its reliance on traditional masculine hierarchies. The lack of gender and LGBTQ+ representation prevents a higher score. Ultimately, the work achieves moderate diversity through its skepticism of Western-led global governance and its engagement with the complexities of a post-independence state.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG have LGBTQ+ representation?

Limited

The film does not include any LGBTQ+ characters or stories about non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth identities. It focuses on traditional masculine roles like soldiers and farmers.

How does Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG portray gender?

Limited

The story centers on male-dominated spaces such as military leadership and patriarchal inheritance. There is no visible women's ability to drive the story or subversion of gendered power dynamics.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG?

Good

The narrative challenges Western-centric clichés by focusing on a local Nambabwean protagonist. However, the presence of American military leaders keeps a focus on Western interventionist perspectives.

How does Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG represent religion and culture?

Good

The film critiques Western institutions by showing the UN as an incompetent force. It explores themes of corruption and land ownership in a post-war setting.

Does Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no information about characters with visible or invisible disabilities in the provided narrative.

Present on Screen

Centers a local Nambabwean protagonist to challenge the 'Western-as-norm' cliché
Provides a platform for non-Anglo-Saxon ability to act through indigenous perspectives
Satirizes Western institutional authority and the incompetence of international peacekeeping forces

Limited or Absent

Lacks any visible women's ability to drive the story or representation of women in leadership roles
Completely absent of LGBTQ+ characters or non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth identities
Relies heavily on traditional masculine archetypes and patriarchal structures

Official Synopsis

Kwagga Robertse owns a farm shop in the fictional Southern African country of Nambabwe and usually cons foreign tourists by pretending to kill a lion, thus earning him the nickname 'Urumbo' (Lion Killer) from the country's natives. Kwagga is upset when the UN sends a platoon of incompetent soldiers with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (U.N.T.A.G.), to monitor the peace process, and ensure free and fair elections after the Nambabwean War for Independence. The U.N.T.A.G's American leader, Major Bradick D. Mackay and his second-in-command, Captain Zapman are offered a diamond worth a lot of money in the U.S., and they must pay 200,000 USD to Duan Robertse, Kwagga's competitive brother trying to buy a farm left to them by their dead father.

How are these scores produced? →