E178 | Soon Comes Night

What this episode covers

A liberation hero turned heist king and a broken Apartheid cop seeking redemption find their lives interlocked in this gritty crime drama Set in 1990s South Africa, against an emerging rainbow-nation whose great promise is dangerously close to being irrevocably broken, Soon Comes Night has at its heart a story about two men, both complex, both determined to prove themselves. It's a story about how good people find themselves doing bad things and how bad people have a surprising capacity to do good. Based on real events and inspired by a notorious heist legend, the series follows fictional freedom fighter Alex Shabane after he returns to South Africa. When his promised 'spoils of war' fail to materialize, Alex helps himself by turning to crime. His brazen cash heists and redistribution of the loot embarrass the new government, who appoint detective Sakkie Oosthuizen, a former Apartheid cop, to find and arrest him. While the charismatic Shabane endeavors to carve out his empire in an audacious defiance of the law , Oosthuizen is a broken man, struggling with his health, grief, and a dysfunctional police force. As their lives collide, these two very different men reflect the complexity of the old and new South Africa: where a painful past with dark secrets is pitted against the hope and expectation that freedom promised. But also, a place where freedom is never really free.

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