Spud is a 2010 South African comedy-drama film written and directed by Donovan Marsh, based on the novel of the same name by John van de Ruit.

The film stars Troye Sivan as the title character, alongside John Cleese, Jason Cope and Tanit Phoenix.

In 1990 South Africa, fourteen-year-old John Milton (Troye Sivan) spends his first year at an elite boarding school for boys.

While back at home for the holidays, Spud falls in love with Debbie, the daughter of one of his mother's friends, whom he nicknames "The Mermaid."

He seeks the advice of his roommate Gecko, who tells Spud to pretend he loves another girl named Christine, in order to make Amanda jealous.

Spud and Gecko begin to build a strong friendship and they occasionally visit a rock at the top of the hill near the school.

[4] The filmmakers initially thought Jason Cope would be too young to play Sparerib but Garland said he "turns into a nasty housemaster as soon as he steps on set.

[13] The film was criticized by Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court who wrote a letter[14] to Spud producer Ross Garland saying that he saw in particular two scenes as "denigrating gays and lesbians".

The second scene is one in which the gay art teacher, coaching the school's worst rugby team, tells them that "more pressure from the rear" is needed.

Producer Ross Garland said in a statement: "In the five years since Spud was published, and with millions of people having read the book and seen the movie, Justice Cameron is the first person to ever publicly take the view that the film is homophobic [...] With readers and audiences across the country being moved by the story of a vulnerable boy who learns to find his own voice and thereby overcome the bullying and bigotry at his school in 1990, it is hard to fathom how Justice Cameron arrived at his opinion.