Violent aliens signal death of the office

SOUTH African content is once again making waves in the international entertainment market as locally produced film Office Invasion dropped globally on Netflix this week.

The sci-fi comedy features some of the nation’s best talents, including the likes of Jack Devnarain, Desmond Dube, Rea Rangaka, Kiroshan Naidoo, Sechaba Ramphele, Greg Viljoen, Stevel Marc and Aimee Ntuli.

Others who star in Office Invasion are Luthuli Dlamini, Khabonina Qubeka, Kate Liquorish, Bonko Khoza, Bevan Cullinan, Kenneth Fok, Neels Clasen, Daniel Janks, Kabomo Vilakazi and Marcus Mabusela.

The South African film was created by Johannesburg’s Motion Story – the same studio that produced the hit TV shows Shadow in 2019 for the global streaming platform, as well as Dead Places last year for Canal+, AMC and Netflix.

Inspired to some extent by real-life events, Gareth Crocker, Motion Story’s head writer and co-director, explained that Office Invasion sought to provide an answer to a question that had plagued workers for generations:

“What would happen if your already ridiculous company was taken over by a trio of hapless aliens hell-bent on murdering you and all of your colleagues?

“Earlier in our careers, we all worked extensively with a wide variety of local and international companies,” Crocker explained.

“It seemed that almost everywhere we went, we discovered bizarre rules and office cultures and unfortunately, many of the people working for these organisations seemed to have become immune to and ‘brainwashed’ by these absurd rules and would follow them like lemmings off a cliff.”

Crocker added that over the years, he and his team also came across many bizarre and absurd workplaces that millions of people found themselves trapped in daily.

“We’ve encountered everything from staff being required to fill out a form before they can use the bathroom to employees being forced to sing (and dance to) the company’s cringey team-building anthem at the start of every day,” he said. “It struck us as both tragic and hilarious and great material for a film.”

But workplace culture was just the starting point for

Office Invasion, Crocker said, and he explained Motion Story wanted to create a bizarre yet relatable workplace comedy that naturally morphed into a lowscale alien invasion.

However, unlike how Hollywood presents its highly advanced and sophisticated aliens, the studio was driven by a different notion: “What if the aliens sent in their B-team?”

“The aliens, in effect, mirror the many bumbling managers and staff that blight workplaces all over the world,” Crocker explained.

“With fewer and fewer comedy films being released, we wanted to make something light-hearted and tongue-incheek.”

He said that at a time when so many people were suffering and in dire need of an escape, they were hoping that Office Invasion would provide them some respite.

“We need the opportunity to laugh at the many absurdities in our lives,” he said.