Showmax's upcoming twisty and twisted new Original, DAM, looking the part

The quality of local productions is getting better and better it seems with another one (DAM) under the Showmax umbrella looking fantastic. In the past we’ve dished out our fair share of criticism aimed at local productions but this is quickly becoming a thing of the past and this is especially when it comes to productions from Multichoice who are producing top quality content lately. From Still Breathing, to Trackers, to Legacy, to Rogue, to now and most recently Lioness and DAM… the list is seemingly endless and we are more than here for that.

Following the earlier announcement, Showmax have now shared more concrete info around their next upcoming big local original by releasing a first-look trailer underpinned as a small-town psychological thriller premiering Monday, 22 February 2021.

Silwerskerm Best Actress winner Lea Vivier (Wonderlus) stars as Yola Fischer, who returns from Chile to the Eastern Cape to bury her father. She discovers he’s left his farm to her, to the irritation of her sister, Sienna. It turns out that this may be more of a curse than a blessing, as the house seems to be trying to tell her something. But with her mother institutionalised, and her own meds running out, Yola has to wonder if the spirits are real or just in her head?

Four-time SAFTA winner Alex Yazbek (Unmarried, The Wild, Isibaya) wrote and directed the twisty and twisted eight-part series.

DAM builds on the success of Showmax’s first two scripted Originals – the SAFTA-winning mockumentary Tali’s Wedding Diary and the SAFTA-nominated murder mystery The Girl From St Agnes, both of which set first-day viewing records on the platform.

DAM was filmed on location in the Bedford and Adelaide towns of the Amathole District in the Eastern Cape. Judging by the trailer, three-time SAFTA-winning cinematographer Tom Marais (Hunter Killer, iNumber Number) has clearly made the most of the locations, which mark a welcome change from the cities we usually see in South African series.

But if you spell DAM backwards, you get MAD, and there’s plenty of madness lurking underneath the beauty of his framing. Pigs die with more violence than necessary; a psychiatric hospital patient uses unorthodox art materials; and wall-mounted barbel fish seem disturbingly popular…

“This town, look at it, it’s perfect on the outside,” Bernoldus, the local handyman, tells Yola during the ominous trailer. “But underneath, there’s a lot going on.”

Two-time SAFTA winner Pallance Dladla (Shadow, Isibaya) co-stars as Themba, Yola’s love interest, a biker on the run.

DAM is a Showmax Original made in partnership with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, the Amathole District Municipality and Picture Tree.

Other upcoming Showmax Originals include the long-awaited second season of the SAFTA-winning comedy Tali’s Wedding Diary in March and the Cape Flats neo-noir murder mystery Skemerdans in April, not to mention Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s ancient Africa series Blood Psalms, a co-production with Canal+ International; the Kenyan police procedural Crime and Justice; and the reality series I Am LAYCON and Uthando Lodumo, all expected in 2021.

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#Alex Yazbek #Dam #Lea Vivier #Pallance Dladla #Showmax

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Thabiso Moloi

With many, many years of PR, digital & influencer marketing work under his belt, Thabiso has worked on a great number of technology, business and consumer brands. In addition, he has become obsessed with most things under the sun including music, series, sports, movies etc which he now regularly writes about. You can find him on Twitter: @Thabz_14