Soon comes the night — Netflix
A local crime drama series that seems to have been inspired by the legend of notorious former MK operative turned heist kingpin Colin Chauke. Kwenzo Ngcobo stars as Alex Shabane, a liberation struggle veteran, who, in the shadow of the emergence of the rainbow nation in 1990s Johannesburg, realises that he will not be seeing any promised spoils of war and decides to use his skills in the service of crime. It’s a choice that soon proves very lucrative but also one that draws the angry attention of his former comrades in the new government. Embarrassed by his brazen heists and Robin Hood antics, they enlist the services of a former apartheid-era cop to capture Shabane. As the two men become embroiled in a battle in which they will face their personal demons and pit the country’s past against its fragile future, who will win becomes a much bigger question than either of them could have imagined.
The Kitchen — Netflix
Oscar-winning-actor Daniel Kaluuya and architect-turned-director Kibwe Tavares codirect this dystopian sci-fi thriller that takes on the big issues of gentrification and the marginalisation of working-class communities in an imagined London of the year 2040. Kane Robinson stars as Izi, a resident of the defiant neighbourhood known as “the Kitchen”, whose residents are fighting an increasingly desperate battle against the encroachment of policies eliminating social housing and driving ordinary people out of their homes. When Izi decides that it’s time to leave, he participates in one last heist in an attempt to raise the money he needs to make his escape but things take an unexpected turn when a young boy enters his life. The two find themselves in a fight for not only for their own survival but that of the broader community and its struggle for existence and independence.
Better — Britbox
Leila Farzad stars as a corrupt police detective who has navigated her way through life for 20 years as a respected community servant by day with a secret life as the lackey to a local underworld boss (Andrew Buchan) by night. When her son almost dies as a result of her double life, she’s faced with a life-changing decision that will either destroy her and her family or offer her one last chance for redemption.
The Artgul Dodger — Disney +
A fun-filled and easily enjoyable imagining of the life of Dickens’ beloved rogue Jack Dawkins/the Artful Dodger, 15 years after the events of Oliver Twist. Thomas Brodie-Sangster stars as Dawkins, now retrained as a surgeon and living his reinvented life in 1850s Australia. When his old mentor Fagin (David Thewlis) makes an unwelcome and unexpected arrival down under, Dawkins’ old habits soon return and threaten to send him back on the road to crime and the prison he’s so far managed to evade.
Cristobal Balenciaga — Disney +
Alberto San Juan stars in this lush period drama, as the enigmatic and publicity-averse Spanish fashion guru who worked his way from humble working-class beginnings to the heights of glamorous fashion superstardom as the “King of Fashion” in postwar Europe.
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