ShowMax and kykNET released the first trailer for Waterfront, a star-studded dark family drama set in the underworld of one of South Africa’s leading tourist destinations.

Ship-construction patriarch Ben Myburgh (SAFTA nominee Dawid Minnaar) has passed away. Due to his death, his three daughters – Julia (Milan Murray in Die Byl), Anna (Silwerskerm Award and Fleur du Cap Award nominee Rolanda Marais) and Kate (Trix Vivier in Die Boekklub) – return to the family business in the Cape Town harbour. However, only one of them will inherit the family’s business empire in this dark story of secrecy, competition between siblings and radical change in a neighbourhood.

Silwerskerm Award winners Albert Pretorius and Erica Wessels, Fleur du Cap Award winners Charlton Lee George, Paul du Toit and Stian Bam and 2017 SAFTA nominee Neels van Jaarsveld share the screen with familiar faces such as Edwin van der Walt (Ballade vir ’n Enkeling), Hannes van Wyk (Kwêla, Egoli, danZ!), Joanie Combrink and Marvin Lee Beukes (Die Byl) and Tarryn Wyngaard (Noem My Skollie).

But in this series, the big star is the V&A Waterfront. “It’s such a special place, and it has never before been used in this way in a local drama series,” said producer Herman Binge from Lion’s Head Productions.

The series reminds us that the beauty of the Waterfront came at a price: the enrichment of the area that followed the development of the shopping centre in the 80s meant that not all the Waterfront’s neighbours could afford to stay on, as property in the area suddenly became priceless. Even people like the Myburghs were placed under tremendous pressure to move.

“When I was small, the Waterfront was a kind of shipyard,” remembers actress Euodia Samson (Die Byl). “It was a wonderful area because there were people and fishermen everywhere. Nowadays it’s so prim and proper that you have to put on high heels if you want to come here.”

Charlton Lee George (Die Boland Moorde) agrees. “It has changed a lot since the eighties. This was a dangerous place, so it was very interesting to see how it became a tourist mecca.”

Waterfront was originally intended as a soap opera. It was shortlisted together with The Wild when M-Net searched for a soap opera, and with Suidooster when kykNET was looking for one. But when the Fleur du Cap and Kanna Award winning director Jaco Bouwer (Rooiland, Samsa-Masjien) became involved, he preferred to use family dramas like Bloodline and Norwegian noir like The Killing as references.

Together with scriptwriter Leon Kruger, Bouwer blew new life into the concept and shifted the focus to the complex human relations at the heart of the story. The places where most of the action takes place, has been moved from the bright shopping centre to the dark corners and curves of the harbour. “I did not want to create a good and a bad character,” said Kruger, who worked as an actor with Bouwer on Die Boland Moorde. “I wanted to write something grey.”

Bouwer believes the series is setting a new direction for South African television, with a complex structure and moral codes, and up to five storylines running simultaneously. A few scenes are fragmented over the course of 13 episodes and there are flashbacks and scenes that look into the future. “I believe and hope local audiences are ready for this,” says Bouwer. “I do not think we’ve seen anything like Waterfront on local television.”

Waterfront replaces Die Boekklub on kykNET (DStv channel 144) on 10 October 2017 at 20:00 SAST, and will be on ShowMax the next day already. New episodes will be screened weekly.