by Thinus Ferreira
M-Net’s latest local drama series, Desert Rose, produced by Quizzical Pictures, will premiere on Thursday 2 June at 20:30 with another small-town story, similar to its current Recipes for Love and Murder.
MultiChoice’s video streaming service Showmax initially announced Desert Rose as a Showmax Original but hasn’t said anything about its development or production since.
There’s been no explanation for the switch of Desert Rose from Showmax to M-Net, and neither Showmax nor M-Net made any announcement when the series pickup changed platforms.
M-Net describes the 8-episode Desert Rose, set on a remote farm in the Northern Cape province, as “an evocative, emotional, quirky and cinematic new family-centred drama” that “mixes black comedy, suspense, crime, romance, sexiness and music while focusing on the unlikely reconnecting of a father and his children”.
Desert Rose is directed by Cindy Lee and was written by screenwriter and showrunner Rohan Dickson.
Desert Rose stars Neil Sandilands as an erstwhile musician, who also wrote and performed much of the music in the drama series, accompanied by Theo Crous and Georgio Frazer Barry.
The rest of the Desert Rose ensemble cast includes Amalia Uys, Kai Luke Brümmer, Christia Visser, Tinarie van Wyk (also seen in Recipes for Love and Murder), Daniah de Villiers, Brandon Daniels, comedian Ben Voss, Tracy Lee Oliver, Danny Ross, Roeline Daneel, Craig Urbani, Melt Sieberhagen and David Viviers.
Desert Rose tells the story of the disenfranchised and the forgotten in a desert town through the Greyling family.
According to M-Net (DStv 101), Desert Rose “emotional and rooted in character, is a love letter to the misfit; to loss, loneliness and eccentricity; to broken relationships – and to South Africa itself”.
“Inspired by Americana – highways, diners and gas stations – and thorny family drama with a quirky heart, prepare to explore the crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary.”
In Desert Rose, Eben
Greyling, the young son of an absent father refuses a request from the family’s
benefactor Van As to go fishing. This breaks the shackles of a long-time
agreement – but the debt will not disappear and someone has to pay.
The
consequences of the broken agreement set off a series of escalating events as
the family is forced to confront the mayhem that is sent their way.
Besides linear broadcast on M-Net, Desert Rose will also be available on MultiChoice’s DStv Catch Up.