Showmax Chief Yolisa Phahle Talks Co-Production And ‘Black Panther Effect’ As Streamer Reveals First Trailer For African Fantasy Drama ‘Blood Psalms’

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled.

You can watch it her below.Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice.

The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis, the five surviving houses of Kemet find themselves beset with fears of a prophesied end of days.” Bokang Phelane (Keeping Score, Isidingo) plays Princess Zazi, a fiercely determined teenage princess who must navigate primordial curses, long-standing ancestral vendettas, and her inexplicable role as the damning prophecy’s chief harbinger, while SAFTA and an African Movie Academy Award winner Mothusi Magano plays her father, the mad king Letsha.The huge cast also includes Bongile Mantsai (Knuckle City), Hamilton Dlamini (Five Fingers For Marseilles), Hlubi Mboya (Isidingo), S’dumo Mtshali (iNumber Number, Is’thunzi), Siv Ngesi (DAM), Thishiwe Ziqubu (The Imposter) and Warren Masemola (The Republic), Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa (Rockville), Niza Jay (The Wound), Richard Lukunku