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Exclusive: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it here below.

Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.

The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...

It’s 1994 and young Dudu and Duke have little in the way of inspiring role models to build lives for themselves in Mdantsane, South Africa. Apartheid is over and Nelson Mandela is president, but they’re taking notes from a father (Zolosa Xaluva’s Art Nyakama) raving about how “real men” take care of their family despite cheating on his wife with teenagers and barely knowing what his sons are doing or where they are at any moment. What he means by “protection” is the willingness to steal, cheat, and kill—to prove himself better than the next man trying to follow the law or daring to interfere with what he has ownership over. When escape is only possible through the boxing ring, jail, or death, possessions become identity.

Nobody should then be surprised about where these boys find themselves in 2019 as two halves of the same chip off the old block.

"I've killed people. Lots of people. At least, they tell me they were people. They looked more like monsters to me." Holy crap this looks awesome! A new proof of concept short film has arrived online this week titled Apocalypse Now Now, set in Cape Town, South Africa. The film is about a serial killer kid who partners with bounty hunter to clear his name. He ends up getting dragged into a "deep, dark Cape Town underbelly full of monsters and myth, shadowy government forces." The main creature in this is badass, and the rest of it is sleek and stylish, and just the right amount of gritty. Starring Garion Dowds, Louw Venter, and Faniswa Yisa. This also kind of reminds me of Attack the Block, and if that film can get made, turn into a big cult hit, and launch the career of John Boyega, then this deserves to...

Xyz Films, Be Phat Motel Film Company and Stage 5 Films have released the first teaser for the Apocalypse Now Now short film based on the popular urban fantasy novel by Charlie Human. Starring Garion Dowds as Baxter Zevcenko, Louw Venter as Jackie Ronin, Faniswa Yisa as The Vigilante and directed by Michael Matthews, Apocalypse […]...