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M-Net's new action thriller Trackers: what it's about and who's in it

Written by TVSA Team from the blog M-Net on 23 Oct 2019
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This Sunday night (27 October) M-Net premieres the channel's new action thriller Trackers, a dramatisation of local author Deon Meyer's novel.

It's starts at 20h00, with a two-hour premiere, and thereafter episodes are just over an hour a week, with six episodes in total.

Deon with his wife Marianne at a premiere screening at Monte Casino last week.

It's set and filmed in Cape Town and there are multi-production houses involved: M-Net, Scene 23 (co-created by Deon), Three River Fiction (London based producers) and American network Cinemax, who'll be distributing it internationally.

To prepare for its debut, we've compiled this snack pack to flavour your popcorn:

What's it about?

At the centre of the action is abused, stay-at-home, Durbanville mom Milla, played by Rolanda Marais of Binnelanders fame.

Milla leaves her abusive husband and applies for a job as a junior researcher/journalist at a local newspaper - at least this is what she thinks it is when she gets the job but it turns out to be an intelligence agency called the Presidential Intelligence Agency.

She starts snooping around and breaks the agency protocols by doing her own research into their investigations, which serves her bosses well because she starts leading them in the right directions to solve cases.

As she gets more deeply involved she finds herself drawn into a conspiracy involving the head of the PIA and an ex-state bodyguard in a plot involving organised crime, terrorism, smuggled diamonds, state security, Black Rhinos and an international terrorist plot.

Who's in it

Rolanda Marais as Milla Strachan
 

 
TVSA was invited onto the set during the filming of the series earlier this year - for one of Milla's scenes - so we were able to get perspectives on Milla directly from Rolanda.
 
Flash fact: she also lives in Durbanville after relocating from Joziburg.

This is how she describes Milla:
 

Rolanda on set.
  

Rolanda: She starts off as a very insecure, emotionally abused woman, having to find her feet again, getting involved in something that's actually not at all right for her at that point but then "gooing" (throwing) herself into it, knowing that she's got nothing to lose.

Her husband and her son have rejected her. She feels that she's lost him as a son so she's just on her own.

That gives her the freedom to do whatever she wants. Putting her own life in danger for a better cause.



Sandi Schultz as Janina Mentz 
 

For Director of the PBI - Janina Mentz - preserving the security of the Republic of South Africa is her religion.

Born in the Cape Flats, she was on active service with the MK when she was still in her teens, serving in Angola and undercover in South Africa.

She sacrificed her personal life to build the Republic and is the implacable enemy of those who would undermine and corrupt it.

She firmly believes in South African independence free of outside interference.
 

Thapelo Mokoena as Quinn Makebe



Chief of Operations and Janina's second-in-command at the PBI, there is little doubt that Quinn is being groomed to replace her.

They have worked together now for several years. Quinn demonstrated loyalty through last year's disaster and even now, as Janina goes out on a limb to save the PBI, he remains her closest confidant and protégé.

But Quinn is ambitious and slick - he is of the post-struggle generation and sometimes Janina doubts his motivations.

A highly educated man from a comfortable background, he strives to prove himself in the field as a man of action.
 

Sisanda Henna as Julius "Inkunzi/The Bull" Shabangu 



A Johannesburg-based organised crime boss, "Inkunzi" runs a large syndicate involved in car-jacking, drugs, and prostitution.

His powerbase is in Jozi, but he has forged links with Cape Town mobs and owns a club in the city, the Bull Pen, and a vast, beautiful house.
 

James Gracie as Lemmer 



Former special-forces and ministerial bodyguard, Lemmer walked away from state service over a year ago after a PBI-led operation against a linked Islamist terrorist cell went disastrously wrong.

The mission left the witness he was brought in to protect dead and his reputation as an operative falsely tarnished.

Determined to forget his old life he has moved to the small Karoo town of Loxton refurbishing a money-pit of an old house and keeping his anger management issues in check.
 

Brendon Daniels as Shaheed Osman



The leader of a Cape Town based cell of an international terrorist organisation. His efforts will be instrumental in pulling off a major terrorist attack on SA soil.
 

Jill Middelkop as Teliha Osman



Osman’s wife. After studying in London in the 2000s, she returned to Cape Town to complete her PHD. She married Osman soon after and gave up her research post to become a wife and mother to their only child.
 

Ed Stoppard as Lucas Becker



Ex-US Navy lieutenant and Middle Eastern archaeological expert, Becker is part of a major artifact smuggling syndicate operating out of Iraq and other Middle Eastern war zones.

When Interpol came after him he stole the syndicate's money and ran to South Africa.

His ex-partners have now caught up with him and want their money back.
 

Emmanuel Castis as Suleiman Daoud



Born in Egypt, the youngest son of an Egyptian colonel in Mubarak's Army, Suleiman studied Civil Engineering in the United States - graduating from Caltech in 2002.

He broke all ties with his family in early 2003 and travelled to join Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq.

Suleiman was flagged by the CIA as part of the team that bombed the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad in August 2003, killing the UN's special representative and triggering the UN's withdrawal from Iraq, becoming a feared AQI commander in Anbar Province.

In 2006, he reappeared back in Egypt as an early trainer of AQ in the Sinai Peninsula (AQSP).

In 2014, he escaped a US drone attack in North Waziristan, reappearing in 2016 in Gombe in North Eastern Nigeria in talks with leading members of Boko Haram.

While he was in the city, there were a devastating series of coordinated car bomb attacks. Until ringing the bells at the PBI, he has been keeping a low profile.

He would not normally deal with an outfit like Alajna, far from the real centre of International jihad; the only reason he is in Cape Town now is because Alajna have access to something no one else can provide.

Daoud is cold, calm, and utterly ruthless. He will take over any operation and remove anyone anything that threatens its success.
 
 
Trix Vivier as Cornel "Flea" van Jaarsveld 



"Flea" is an expert wildlife tracker who no longer wants to live the desperate hand-to-mouth existence she lived with her father, Louis.

He was also a master tracker, raised among the San of South Africa.

He worked, not always legally, for American and German trophy hunters in Botswana and Zimbabwe, which is where he got a prominent farmer's daughter, Drika, pregnant.

The farmer disowned his daughter, who gave birth to Flea.
 

And...

Others in the cast include: Deon Lotz as Diederik, Avitol Lavova as Jessica, Masali Baduza as Thandi and David Dukas as Bruno.
 

Shows in this post: Trackers

Channels in this post: M-Net



1 Comment

Timone
24 Oct 2019 09:56

I hear the book is quite good, I hope the TV adaption will live up to this.  I wonder if six episodes is enough to narrate this multifaceted theme though.


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