Ryan Swano
A part of me kept whispering that, going by the hilarity of the trailers, Finding Optel might just turn out to be a little too over the top for my liking, even for a flight of fancy. I was in for a pleasant surprise.
Yes, almost everyone and everything in Finding Optel is quirky and funny, but there is also a fair balance between moments of emotional tension, tender interactions and the expected hilarious shenanigans.
What is refreshingly welcome with Finding Optel is that there is no hint of gangsterism. Yes, there is the ‘bad guy’ and he is a nasty criminal. After all, a dog, Optel, got stolen, and it wasn’t the first dog to disappear in the area. However, this is not the typical gangster story that is depicted in so many films about people from Coloured communities.
16-year-old amateur detective Claire Abrahams’s search for a missing dog unexpectedly reopens old wounds when she also finds clues relating to her older brother’s disappearance.
Finding Optel first premiered at the 2025 Silwerskerm Film Festival on 21 August, followed by Community Screenings in Retreat the next day.
The film had its international premiere at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival on Saturday, 18 October and streaming will launch on Showmax on Friday, 24 October 2025.
Siblings Mikayla and Jesse Brown co-directed the film, with Mikayla also penning the screenplay and heading the cast in the role of Claire.
At just 25-years-old, Mikayla Joy Brown is the youngest director to have a film in competition at Silwerskerm, a festival she attended for the first time.
Award-winning producers Quantita Adams and Dominique Jossie produced Finding Optel through Blended Films, which won four Silwerskerm awards last year for Hier.Na.
Portraying a Sense of Community
Finding Optel plays out in a ‘middle class’ Coloured neighbourhood, where community members know each other fairly well and regularly interact.
The setting choice ties in exactly with the sense of community that Mikayla experienced as a kid visiting her grandparents in the small suburb of Montevideo on the Cape Flats, and which she wanted to project when she wrote the screenplay.
“I wanted to write a story that was quirky and incorporated my childhood experiences. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house. I have such fond memories of the parks, the winkeltjie, the wide-open streets we played in, and my grandparents’ home. I wanted to capture those memories in the screenplay.” Mikayla said in a Silwerskermfees Q&A.
Filmed in various locations on the Cape Flats that have a similar feel, Claire’s neighbourhood has a seamless familiarity to it. What’s more is that I could swear that every character is someone I have literally encountered over my lifetime in the part of Elsies River where I grew up and still live, and in every similar ‘middle class’ Coloured area I have traversed in different parts of South Africa.
The combination of locations and set designs that gave some realness to the story and to the characters all worked out brilliantly when Sumaya Wicomb won Best Production Design for Finding Optel at the 2025 Silwerskerm Film Festival.
Mikayla starring as Claire is supported by an all-star cast that includes award-winner Oscar Petersen (Joe Barber) as her father, SAFTA nominee Zenobia Kloppers (Fiela se Kind), Rodney ‘Rotas’ Goliath and Sherman Pharo (both Arendsvlei), Maurice Carpede and Euodia Samson (both Summertide), Elton Landrew (Spinners), and Omar Adams (Barakat, The Umbrella Men).
Watching Finding Optel I appreciated that the way it unfolded was by steadily revealing the “back stories” as it went along. The film didn’t lose pace by spending too much time on first building characters and story arcs.
A Story of Self Discovery & Coming of Age
Claire’s story is part self-discovery and coming of age, part navigating the tensions between her and her father, John Abrahams, played by Oscar Petersen, while dealing with the loss of her brother, and part affirming her place in society and her role in her community.
Many of us are likely to know someone’s dad who is a really good provider, but who is unrealistically strict and over-protective with his children; John Abrahams is at the extreme end of that, but fortunately without being physically abusive.
More than portraying a strict father, Oscar Petersen makes John come across as a scared, psychologically damaged shell of man. This of course is a comedy, and maybe I’m weird, but my mind kinda tripped on him having to be deadpan funny while maintaining the idiosyncrasies of a seriously flawed persona. I couldn’t wait for John to ‘come right’ and be ‘normal’, and whether the actor and director intentionally wanted that to be so or not, I don’t know.
Claire is a bit of a dreamer, but she isn’t completely lost to her dreams, and somehow through all of the silliness, she also seems quite grounded and determined to be true to herself.
Oh and speaking of grounded… She of course, like many teens at some point, has to manoeuvre through the restrictions of being grounded by a parent.
There is also a tinge of awkward teen romance, with Rodney ‘Rotas’ Goliath playing the boy who clearly has a crush on Claire. Their blossoming friendship is enjoyable to watch as they gwarra (tease) each other with an endearing innocence that one nowadays rarely sees between teen characters on screen.
Outstanding Performances by Supporting Cast
In a highly talented cast, the most outstanding performance I believe came from the SAFTA nominee Zenobia Kloppers. Her character, Aunty Doreen, adeptly swayed between witty quips, hilarious physical comedy, being a sage-level wise maternal figure, and an empathetic friend.
“She’s the aunty in the community who looks after everyone and makes sure that they are all okay. She is a leader in the community, and specifically with Claire, the lead character, she is a mother figure to her. She’s a mother, aunty, ouma, all-in-one kind of thing.” Zenobia said about Aunty Doreen on Showmax Stories.
‘Aunty Doreen’ is a familiar figure in many communities; someone who technically is not a relative but who genuinely is more than family.
It was also a first for me to see Zenobia Kloppers act almost entirely in English but she was as excellent as ever with letting her face portray the emotions of her character. One can literally see on her face the motherly love Aunty Doreen has for Claire. In Afrikaans I’d say: “Sy weerspieël deernis”.
Another endearing character is that of Uncle Henry, the local tuckshop owner who is also the neighbourhood information source, vendor of conspiracy theories, and the bhai who knows something about everyone.
The veteran 80-year-old actor Omar Adams who we all know as Boeta Maan, father of entertainers Loukmaan Adams and Emo Adams, and founder of Kinders Van Die Ses, was heart-warming to watch.
To be honest, there were some lines Boeta Maan seemed to deliver at what felt like an unnaturally measured cadence, BUT…
Boeta Maan is 80, and he is a Legend!!!
Anybody watching Finding Optel should feel honoured that they get to see Omar Adams act in another film.
Definitely not a bit-part character is Grant Jacobs, the hapless self-appointed neighbourhood safety officer, and Claire’s rival investigator, played by Maurice Carpede. In an action movie, the Grant Jacobs character would be the comic relief. I don’t know what one calls that in an actual comedy, but whatever it is, Carpede did it well.
Elton Landrew’s initial appearance on the screen had me thinking that he would be the guilty bad guy. I won’t give anything away, but when his character, Slang, came to life, I was bawling with laughter.
The film goes a long way before the bad guy is eventually revealed.
The cold evil CEO demeanour of Mr Williams is well-portrayed by an actor whose whole presence is apt for the role. How Mr Williams is eventually found out and apprehended I won’t reveal, except to say that Sherman Pharo plays the one character who isn’t at all quirky nor funny. Telling you more would be too much of a spoiler.
WATCH: Finding Optel Trailer – a Showmax Original
Finding Optel Raises an Animal Welfare Issue
As for how Optel was found and what would’ve happened to the doggie if it hadn’t been found, you will hopefully when watching Finding Optel feel a sense of justice about the outcome.
Animal welfare issues need more attention from everyone in our communities, from all walks of life, and we should all realise, as a matter of fact, that animal abuse is not only perpetrated by people in poor communities or by criminals that look a certain way.
There are often also sadistic wealthy people among those who hurt our furry friends.
Finding Closure
The one thing that bothers me about Finding Optel is that Claire seems to have found closure about her missing brother, and seems to have accepted that which she dared not believe before.
Maybe while watching Finding Optel I lost attention for just a second or two and missed a vital piece of information?
If so, maybe they should’ve made that part clearer? Of was ek net dof?
Anyways… I became invested in the idea that he would either be found or that, if he had died, his death would have some significant meaning. It doesn’t keep me awake at night but I need closure, so I will watch it again when Finding Optel starts streaming on Showmax… Net om seker te maak.
