by Thinus Ferreira
M-Net has commissioned and filmed a new Afrikaans drama series, Niggies, for kykNET (DStv 144), which is kykNET's first-ever drama series based on true-crime murders in South Africa.
Niggies will start on kykNET in March.
Produced by Wolflight Films with Jaco Bouwer as director, the 9-episode Niggies started filming in October 2024 and wrapped on 7 December, with principal photography that took place around Cape Town.
Niggies is based on the double murders in 1965 of Issie Fourie and Petro Nel in the Free State province town of Odendaalsrus who were both abducted and murdered.
Issie's brother, André decided to bring the perpetrator to justice - something that took 18 years.
Niggies stars Beer Adriaanse as the older André, with Janru
Steenkamp as the younger André, alongside Carel Nel.
Niggies starts with the double abduction and murder
of Issie Fourie and Petro Nel in Odendaalsrus in 1965 and stretches
across the 1960s and 1980s. The story is set in Odendaalsrus, Allanridge and Kroonstad in
the northeastern Free State.
Niggies has Roelof Storm as executive producer with Saartjie Botha and Philip Rademeyer who penned the script.
Jaco Bouwer says "While the
abduction and murders made headlines at the time, the details of the story have
been forgotten by all but those directly affected by the trauma".
"We didn't want to open old wounds but rather explore what really
happened, with some dramatic license, and examine it in the context of modern
South Africa where these events are more common than they were 60 years ago."
Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director of premium channels, says "Niggies is
a raw exploration of loss and how unresolved trauma can destroy families".
"It is not a sensational
story about violence - rather, it is a sensitive examination of how pain can be
managed, and healing found in a place where hope is not supposed to exist."
