by Thinus Ferreira
On Sunday night M-Net (DStv 101) released the first character teaser for its upcoming new locally-filmed crime drama series Reyka that will start on Sunday 25 July at 20:00 on the channel.
For the second time, M-Net is once again delaying and pushing its Sunday night 20:00 movie timeslot for a locally-produced drama series - something it did first for Trackers in October 2019 that was a co-production with WarnerMedia's HBO.
The 8-episode Reyka, produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions as a co-production between M-Net and Fremantle and that is set in the KwaZulu-Natal sugarfields, stars Kim Engelbrecht in the title role as the brilliant-but-flawed criminal profiler Reyka.
In the drama series, Reyka investigates a string of brutal murders committed by a serial killer but viewers will first meet Reyka on voting day in South Africa in 1994 - the day of her abduction.
The Reyka cast is rounded out by the British actor Iain Glen as farmer Speelman, as well as Thando Thabethe as the by-the-book detective Nandi Cele.
Leeanda Reddy plays the forensic detective Alia Sewsunker, Hamilton Dhlamini is the policeman Hector Zwane, with Mavuso Simelane as his son Samuel Zwane.
Anna-Mart van der Merwe is seen as Reyka's mother Elsa Meyer, Nokuthula Mavuso is Portia, and Rashaan Stackling as Thuli Gama plays Reyka's daughter.
Gabrielle De Gama portrays the young version of Reyka in flashbacks who was abducted as a child by Speelman who, 20 years later, still has a mysteriously manipulative and charming hold on her as part of the backbone of the story - as does Reyka's relationship wth her mother Elsa.
Reyka is traumatised by her abduction experience but this also helps her to enter the minds of Africa's most notorious criminals.
