by Thinus Ferreira
6 TVs
With perhaps too many shaky-cam close-up shots, Reyka as M-Net's latest broody, hunt-the-killer local drama series tells a greyish-and-blue tinted story within a sugarcane field setting that's fine enough, although not excellent, for 8 weeks of Sunday night whodunnit?-entertainment.
In short, Reyka is like Prodigal Son and Silence of the Lambs (if done as a TV series), set among the lush yet ominous sugarcane plantations of KwaZulu-Natal where a woman with issues of her own, works to catch a serial killer by mining the mind of the man who abducted her as a child.
Done with a muted palette and a sombering grey-blue tint, Kim Engelbrecht is the current-time, older Reyka, a crime profiler hunting a serial killer. Gabrielle de Gama nimbly portrays the young Reyka.
Reyka strongly reminds of Kate Winslet in the recent Mare of Easttown, tracking down an elusive murderer (that will surely come with the obligatory surprise twist-reveal) whilst battling her own demons, trauma and internal insecurities.
The script, from screenwriter and creator Rohan Dickson also responsible for e.tv's Scandal! and SABC3's High Rollers, is likely inspired by the gruesome real-life story of Thozamile Taki, known as the Sugarcane Killer who was convicted in 2011 of the murder of 13 young women he buried in the sugarcane fields around Umzinto in 2007.
Produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions together with Fremantle UK as an M-Net Original crime drama, Reyka is perhaps peppered with too many shaky-cam close-up shots to help craft a claustrophobic, character-in-uncertainty-and-stress atmosphere that never lets up.
Especially Ian Roberts, Anna-Mart van der Merwe and Kenneth Nkosi are disciplined in their understated portrayals of respectively John Tyrone, mom Elsa and Msomi.
The Scottish Iain Glen, cast thanks to Fremantle, is an absolute star as banana farmer Angus Speelman now in an orange jumper who abducted girls with the help of his wife Portia (Nokuthula Mavuso).
Kim Engelbrecht's progression from former Isidingo starlet to meatier roles and gaining valuable experience in international series like the SA-filmed Dominion and recently in The Flash, is very convincing as the emotionally overwrought, obsessive, and filled-with-secrets, Reyka.
Thando Thabethe imbues her role as Constable Nandi Cele with a resolute earnestness and Gerald Steyn pops up after Trackers, Lioness and his recent doctor-turn in kykNET's Binnelanders.
Desmond Dube is also back in another dramatic role as if he has to again prove that he can do so much more than Clientele infomercials in his latest role of Zik, the community's spiritual leader.
Broken relationships, difficulty communicating, uncovering hidden secrets under the surface (in sugar cane fields), light and darkness, as well as a "new South Africa" that moved but that never truly did and that remains scared, terrorised, collectively wondering and captured, are all thematic elements and metaphors woven into the story of Reyka.
Be forewarned: Some on-screen gruesomeness are par for the cause in a catch-the-killer crime drama, with Reyka that is possibly best watched with the lights on, and on bright, on a Sunday night.
Reyka is on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sundays at 20:00, and starts on Sunday 25 July
