Niggies: drama series based on a horrific true crime – a first for kykNET
In 1965, the young Issie Fourie and Petro Nel of sleepy Odendaalsrus in the Free State were abducted and murdered. Issie’s brother, André, swore to do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrator to book. It would take him 18 years.
Niggies [Cousins], a drama series based on this crime that shook the country, was created with a stellar team – in front of and behind the cameras – and will debut on kykNET in March this year. The director is the acclaimed Jaco Bouwer, not only celebrated for his groundbreaking work in the theatre, but also for the international hit series Spinners that was filmed in and around Cape Town.
Leading the cast is Beer Adriaanse as the older André. Adriaanse is a seasoned actor-screenwriter-director, known for films like Wonderlus and Kanarie, and hit series like Hotel and Taktiek. The talented newcomer Janru Steenkamp plays the young André. Also starring is Carel Nel (Donkerbos, Hartstog), who was seen in the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves, and the internationally lauded eco-horror film Gaia, also directed by Jaco Bouwer.
Niggies begins with the double abduction and murder of Issie Fourie and Petro Nel in Odendaalsrus in 1965, but the series stretches across the 1960s and 1980s, with South Africa still in the steely grip of Apartheid. The action takes place in Odendaalsrus, Allanridge and Kroonstad in the north-eastern Free State. Government censorship kept the white minority in the dark about the real turmoil of the time, making events like the Fourie-Nel murder even more of a seismic shock in a conservative part of a conservative country.
After taking Spinners to a global audience, director Jaco Bouwer turns his attention to this poignant period piece with universal themes. Niggies was produced by Wolflight Films, with Roelof Storm (Kanarie, Poppie Nongena) as executive producer, and the award-winning Saartjie Botha and Philip Rademeyer were responsible for the script.
“While the abduction and murders made headlines at the time, the details of the story have been forgotten by all but those directly affected by the trauma,” explains Bouwer. “We didn’t want to open old wounds – but rather explore what really happened, with some dramatic license, and examine it in the context of modern South Africa where these events are more common than they were 60 years ago.”
M-Net’s Director of Premium Channels, Waldimar Pelser, says:
“Niggies is a raw exploration of loss and how unresolved trauma can destroy families. It is not a sensational story about violence; rather, it is a sensitive examination of how pain can be managed, and healing found in a place where hope is not supposed to exist.”
The series follows the recent successes of kykNET dramas like Plan B, Spoorloos and Nêrens, Noord-Kaap Part II which all delivered world-class Afrikaans-language entertainment.
Visit the kykNET website and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
