Die Antwoord Unleash Short Film ‘Tommy Can’t Sleep’ Featuring Jack Black

It’s hard to imagine South African rap duo Die Antwoord and manic funnyman Jack Black teaming up for anything, yet here we are. Onscreen, however, it makes a touch more sense as their live-wire sensibilities compliment each other more greatly than one might initially imagine. If you’re not one for rats, creeping children and/or shrill shouting, this may not be the short film for you, but if you like to kick your week off with a sense of unsettling dread, “Tommy Can’t Sleep” could be just the thing. 

Black plays a cameo role in the artists’ twisted short film, “Tommy Can’t Sleep,” as a described “rat-person” who has an affinity for spray painting dirty images on the walls. Inspired by the works of Roger Ballen, an American photographer living in Johannesburg, South Africa who took on the art direction of the picture, the film is macabre, shot in black and white and relies on grotesque imagery to elicit a reaction. Yolandi Visser directed the short, appearing midway through the piece as another rat/human hybrid who lures Tommy to some form of underworld. Visser and Ninja’s daughter, 16 Jones, stars as Lil’ Tommy with Black playing Big Tommy.

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The film begins as Lil Tommy isn’t able to sleep due to the rats and his parents are far from pleased from being woken up to deal with the problem if the mothers howling is any indication (though you might be forgiven to think the father is fine with it as he keeps a wide grin plastered on his face the entire time). After trying to fall back asleep, Tommy is awoken again by the noise and this time, it’s Visser there to take him to the basement where there’s everything from ninjas, to guns, to a whole lot of rats. Disturbing imagery passes through, Black appears and the short ends as it began, a little odd, a tad obnoxious and very much in the vein of what we’ve come to expect from the duo. [Noisey/Nylon]