Shot on location in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg, the captivating African crime-drama thriller Reyka starts its eight-episode season on M-Net (channel 101 on DStv) at 8pm. The new season will also be made available on the DStv App and Catch Up. South African actress Kim Engelbrecht (The Flash, Dominion) plays Reyka Gama and acclaimed British actor Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey) stars as Angus Speelman in this gripping crime series, which also stars South African and SAFTA award-winning actress Anna-Mart van der Merwe (Poppie Nongena, Kanarie) as Reyka’s mom, Elsa, who struggles to see her daughter’s life spiral into cycles of obsession with her abductor and work. The series will expose secrets and lies, truth and trust, damage and healing, forgiveness and the future.
On Friday 18 June Reyka opened the 60th Monte-Carlo Television Festival with its worldwide first episode screening in Monaco and received rave reviews from guests who attended the festival. Alternating between 1994 and the present day, the series is created and written by award-winning screenwriter Rohan Dickson and directed by Zee Ntuli (Hard to Get) and Catharine Cooke (The Girl from St Agnes). Reyka is jointly produced by Serena Cullen for Serena Cullen Productions in the UK (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and Harriet Gavshon (The Girl from St Agnes) for Emmy-nominated Quizzical Pictures in South Africa. Executive Producers are Serena Cullen, Harriet Gavshon, and Rohan Dickson. Yolisa Phahle, Nkateko Mabaso, Allan Sperling, and Jan du Plessis executive produces for M-Net, and Julie Hodge for Fremantle. Reyka will be distributed globally by Fremantle.
1994: April 27, eleven-year-old Reyka Gama accompanies her mother Elsa, a photographer who is covering the elections for a local newspaper. It’s a time of huge excitement and hope but then something cataclysmic happens, Elsa is looking the other way and Reyka, her only daughter, is abducted.
Present day: Haunted by her disturbing past, a flawed but brilliant Reyka, now a criminal profiler, investigates a string of brutal murders committed by a serial killer amongst the sugarcane fields of KwaZulu-Natal.
Reyka features a fantastic South African cast, including Thando Thabethe as Nandi Cele (Housekeepers), Leeanda Reddy as Alia Sewsunker (Legacy, The Dark Tower), Hamilton Dhlamini as Hector Zwane (Isithembiso, Five Fingers for Marseilles), Mavuso Simelane as Samuel Zwane (Deutschland 86), Gerald Steyn as Tanner (Trackers, Lioness, Binnelanders), Nokuthula Mavuso as Portia (Lioness, The River), Kenneth Nkosi as Chief Msomi (Frank & the Fearless, White Wedding), Rashaan Stackling as Thuli Gama, Gabrielle de Gama as young Reyka, Fiona Ramsey (Lioness, Vergeet my Nie) as Cathleen Tyrone, Ian Roberts (Mia the White Lion, Cape Town) as John Tyrone, and Desmond Dube (Schuks! Pay Back the Money!) as Pastor Zik.
Watch the African crime drama Reyka, Sunday 25 July at 8pm on M-Net, DStv channel 101.
Follow the conversation on social media using #ReykaSA.