Dramatic success for Gavshon’s Reyka on international circuit

When local filmmaker Harriet Gavshon produced the eight-part television drama series Reyka through her production house, Quizzical Pictures, she never imagined that it would get International Emmy nominations. Lead actress in the series, Kim Engelbrecht, was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress category, and the show was nominated for the Best Drama Series category.

“I was delighted, and frankly quite amazed,” says Gavshon. “There’s so much brilliant drama around right now. It was such a surprise that ours was recognised out of the hundreds of submissions from all over the world.”

The series is available in 127 territories worldwide. It’s a “serial killer murder mystery”, says Gavshon. “Although fictional, it has some reference to actual cases. It’s set in the sugar-cane fields of KwaZulu-Natal [KZN], where there have been serial killers in the past. It tells the story of a brilliant criminal profiler, Reyka Gama [Kim Engelbrecht], who is struggling to comes to terms with her dark past. Having been abducted as a child by farmer Angus Speelman [Iain Glen], Reyka uses that experience to understand the minds of serial killers. The series follows her investigation into a string of brutal murders.

“Twenty years on from her abduction, the manipulative, charming Speelman is up for parole and Reyka holds the key to whether he’ll be released or not. But Speelman still exerts a powerful hold on her, and this relationship, together with the one she’s struggling to rebuild with her mother, Elsa, and daughter, Thuli, forms the spine of the story.”

She says the film “had a very long genesis. The writer, Rohan Dickson, has been working on this for 10 years with my co-producer, Serena Cullen. I’m a newcomer. I’ve been working on it for eight years. These things take time to write and to put together the partnerships which go into making a television series of this scale.”

On working with Engelbrecht, Gavshon says, “Kim is a most astonishing actress, and wonderful to work with. A consummate professional, she takes her work extremely seriously and gives a huge amount. She’s also a really nice person – she’s not a diva at all, in spite of her many successes. She’s going to go from strength to strength, and with an Emmy nomination, I hope it gets her even more profile and even better roles.”

Regarding Glen, “Iain is a well-known Scottish actor who was in Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Resident Evil, and Titans,” she says. “His performance is great, and he was enormously generous and gracious.”

In addition, “there’s a wonderful ensemble cast in the series. Reyka’s mother is played by Anna-Mart van der Merwe, the police captain by Hamilton Dlamini, and the pastor by Desmond Dube. Sadly, the wonderful actor Khayalethu Anthony, who played a cane cutter accused of the murders, died at the end of September.”

Asked about the most exciting and positive aspects of making Reyka, Gavshon says, “Often in television, the challenges are what make it exciting – especially when you manage to pull it off.

“It was enormously exciting to finally make the series after working on it for so long. We started pre-production at the beginning of 2020, but then had to shut down because of lockdown. We started up again in November of that year, and ran slap bang into a massive COVID-19 wave in KZN where we were filming.

“In spite of making the show under extremely difficult conditions – the excessive heat of the cane fields, the constant anxiety of encountering snakes, and everyone masked up because of COVID-19, the team worked so hard and so well. I think everyone realised it was a very special series, with brilliant scripts, and we felt blessed to be given the opportunity to show what we can do as South African television makers. We were lucky to have sufficient resources to make this very ambitious story, and give it the time and care that it demanded.

“It’s also wonderful to see the work of some of my colleagues, like directors Zee Ntuli and Catharine Cooke, flourish,” she says. “We all stretched ourselves and it obviously paid off – both because it has sold widely and also because it’s been recognised. It paves the way for other South African work to rightfully take its place in the world.”

Quizzical Pictures has, in fact, been nominated for Emmy awards three times before this – twice for MasterChef South Africa, and once for a mini-series called Hopeville. “This feels special though because it comes at a time when television drama series from all over the world can be appreciated and seen by audiences open to all sorts of drama from around the world. Reyka generally has smashed many boundaries. This is because it’s a really quality and intriguing drama series, and because the world is finally ready for us! We’ve been waiting for this.”

She hopes the nominations will “make people take notice of the talent and skill of South African film and television makers. South African filmmakers make brilliant work on tiny budgets and consequently very tight schedules. The result is that we have skilled crews and creatives. I really hope that more and more projects from South Africa get made and recognised.”

Meanwhile, “Quizzical Pictures is working on a number of international co-productions, also with international talent, a great film for Netflix, and a number of series for South African television and international streamers. We have a wealth of stories in South Africa, and it’s exciting to share them with the world.

“My personal goals always centre on the work,” Gavshon says. “Is it good enough? Can it stand up to scrutiny here and around the world? Does it change something in people who see it or in society at large?”

Her advice to upcoming South African filmmakers is that “success often comes from just keeping going. I have been working in this industry for nearly 30 years. There have been great successes and disappointments. But each time, I pick myself up and keep going on that path. I seldom look back. Each project I tackle, I say, ‘How is this going to be better than anything I have done before?’ So keep going. Immerse yourself in the work you’re doing now. Make it your best.”

South Africans catch Reyka on Showmax. It’s also available on HOT Israel, Britbox in the United States, Channel 4 streaming in the United Kingdom, SBS in Australia, and CBC Gem in Canada.