Trackers is a 2019 internationally co‑produced crime thriller television series. The six‑episode miniseries was produced by Three River Fiction and Scene 23, in partnership with South Africa’s pay‑TV channel M‑Net, German public broadcaster ZDF, and the U.S. network Cinemax (a sister channel of HBO). It is an adaptation of Deon Meyer’s 2011 novel Trackers, with a screenplay written by British showrunner Robert Thorogood together with South African writers.
Production details
- Genre: Thriller, crime, drama
- Based on: Trackers by Deon Meyer
- Created/Adapted by: Robert Thorogood (showrunner), Deon Meyer, Kelsey Egan, Amy Jephta, Jozua Malherbe, René van Rooyen
- Director: Jyri Kähönen
- Countries of origin: South Africa, United Kingdom, Germany, United States
- Executive producers: Jonathan Drake, Jan du Plessis, Wolfgang Feindt, Nkateko Mabaso, Steve Maher, Benjamin McGrath, Yolisa Pahle, Doris Schrenner, Allan Sperling, Tim Theron, Robert Thorogood, Cobus van den Berg, Anneke Villet, Kaye Ann Williams
- Producer: Rebecca Fuller‑Campbell
- Cinematography: Ivan Strasburg
- Editors: Markus van Schalkwyk, Melanie Jankes Golden, Tanja Hagen, Richard Starkey
- Running time: 48–53 minutes per episode
- Production companies: Three River Fiction, Scene23, Imaginarium
Broadcast
- Original network: M‑Net (South Africa) and Cinemax (United States) in October–November 2019; later aired on ZDF (Germany) beginning October 2020 under the title Trackers – Rote Spur.
- Seasons/Episodes: 1 season, 6 episodes
Synopsis Set against a backdrop of contemporary South Africa, Trackers intertwines three primary storylines:
- Organised crime and diamond smuggling – focusing on local businessman Diederick Brand and the illicit trade in diamonds.
- State security operations – following Janina Mentz, director of the Presidential Bureau of Intelligence (PBI), as she confronts corruption and a looming terrorist threat.
- International terrorism – depicting an Al‑Qaeda cell operating in Cape Town, led by Suleiman Daoud and his collaborators.
The narratives converge on a violent conspiracy that links organised crime, smuggled diamonds, state intelligence efforts, and a planned terrorist attack, creating a complex thriller that spans rural and urban South African settings.
Principal cast
- Rolanda Marais as Milla Strachan
- James Gracie as Lemmer
- Sandi Schultz as Janina Mentz
- Thapelo Mokoena as Quinn Makebe (PBI COO)
- Trix Vivier as Flea van Jaarsveld, a wildlife tracker with a troubled past
- Deon Lotz as Diederick Brand
- Kaseran Pillay as Barkatulla “Baboo” Rayan
- Emmanuel Castis as Suleiman Daoud (Al‑Qaeda operative)
Reception Prior to the final episode’s broadcast, M‑Net reported that Trackers was its best‑performing show of 2019. The series received further exposure through Cinemax’s U.S. premiere in June 2020 and subsequent distribution by Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution, except in territories covered by MultiChoice and ZDF.
References
- Wikipedia article “Trackers (TV series)”, accessed via r.jina.ai summarizer.