Best local content on Showmax this August, from tell-alls to roasts, SAFTA nominees to fan specials

REYKA 

Nominated for eight 2022 SAFTAs, including Best TV Drama, Reyka follows criminal profiler Reyka Gama as she investigates a string of brutal murders committed by a serial killer in the sugar cane fields of KwaZulu-Natal.

SAFTA winners Kim Engelbrecht (Raised by Wolves, The Flash) and Hamilton Dhlamini (Five Fingers For Marseilles) are up for Best Actor and Actress as Reyka and Hector Zwane respectively at the 2022 SAFTAs. Iain Glen from Game of Thrones also stars.

The opening night series at last year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, Reyka was sold by Fremantle to 80 territories, including BritBox North America, CANAL+, Channel4 in the UK, HBO LatAm, and Sky Italia. The Independent (UK) gave Reyka four stars, calling the crime series “almost too disturbing” but “beautifully filmed in stunning verdant landscapes and endless skies… a drama that sears itself into your consciousness.”

At the SAFTAs, Reyka is also up for Best Director (Catharine Cooke and Zee Ntuli), Scriptwriting (creator Rohan Dickson), Cinematography (Tom Marais), Editing (Melanie Jankes Golden and Matthew Swanepoel), and MakeUp and Hairstyling (Theola Booyens).

“Forget the chilly surrounds of snow and ice: the haunting cane fields of South Africa is our new favourite location for a dark crime drama,” says Australia’s SBS. “Lovers of dark crime fiction will find their appetites for the grim and grisly well satiated with this compelling South African noir.”

Reyka is jointly produced by Serena Cullen for Serena Cullen Productions in the UK (Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Cold Feet) and Harriet Gavshon for Emmy-nominated Quizzical Pictures (The Girl From St. Agnes) in South Africa.