BENEATH Presentation

BENEATH
A SIX PART 1 HOUR DRAMA SERIES
BASED ON A TRUE STORY

WRITTEN BY
CRAIG FREIMOND & ROBBIE THORPE
BASED ON
COLD CASE CONFESSION
BY ALEX YELISEEV
DEVELOPED BY
OCHRE MOVING PICTURES

SERIES LOGLINE
Two modern day bounty hunters
working outside a malfunctioning law
enforcement system, stumble upon a
confession letter to one of Joburg’s
most bizarre murders. Will our ham
fisted heroes be able to solve this
gritty crime?

THE WORLD
Beneath is set in modern day Johannesburg South Africa, a
crazy-ass place often referred to as the crime capital of the
world. With a toxic mix of a sky-high murder rate, a woefully
under resourced and often corrupt police force, Joburg is not
for the faint-hearted. It’s a rough and ready mining town that
drew fortune seekers, bandits and pimps. A hundred and twentyfive
years later, little has changed. It is Africa’s El Dorado
- the city of gold. In Joburg, justice can come from the
unlikeliest places and often from those operating outside the
law. Enter our two unlikely heroes Al and TJ, both ex-cops, who
worked as partners in Joburg’s notorious Narc squad. They left
the force under a cloud and now operate as private detectives,
police informers, VIP protection, bouncers, anything they can
do to turn a buck. Their methods are blunt and unconventional,
their effectiveness ranges from sensational to disastrous.

THE WORLD
Al is older, calmer, his life as an agent is catching up with
him, forcing him to slow down and consider the angles. TJ, is
no strategist, no Gary Kasparov of criminal investigation. He
is the energy, the passion, the sledgehammer. They are both
street level operators who occupy the shadows between the
layers of society. They share a love of tattoos, motorbikes,
guns and a bizarre quest for justice. They are not afraid
to break laws or bones to crack a case.
They are pitted
against a dizzying array of unusual suspects who rely on the
dysfunctional system to get away with murder.

SEASON ONE
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD
"BASED ON A TRUE STORY"
We use the murky world of true South African crime
stories as the departure point for our series. We
blend fact and fiction to tell stories that are so
strange and peculiar they can only be true.
Based on the explosive true story of the Betty
Kitane murder as explored in Alex Yeliseev’s best
seller Cold Case Confession.

SYNOPSIS
A Johannesburg landlord finds a confession letter
under a dog-piss stained carpet. The contents of the
confession contain clues to a chaotic murder committed
four years earlier. The letter lands in the hands of
unconventional private investigators Al and TJ who take
on the bizarre case believing they can solve it and sell
the information to the police. They discover a circle of
desperate and misguided individuals, who have committed a
grotesque murder to cover up their own crimes. The story
emanates from of one of Johannesburg’s most well-known
restaurants, an eccentric Thai eatery called Cranks.

SYNOPSIS
The place is as famous for its “hot and sour soup” as
it is for the copulating Barbie dolls dangling from the
ceilings and its extremely mysterious owner Florian.
Mary Kunene was Florian’s right-hand person who had
worked for him for fifteen years until one day, she
simply disappeared without trace. She was an innocent
bystander who knew too much and had to be removed. The
perpetrators have for the last four years quite simply,
gotten away with murder. Al and TJ ’s unorthodox
methods might just be what is needed to crack this case
right open. The story weaves between past and present.
The events are bizarre and brutal, but the tone of the
telling is darkly comic.

CHARACTERS
JAMIE BARTLETT AS AL
Alex White; Al for short, is a gnarled, bruised and broken white man
who has led a dangerous life veering wildly on both sides of the law.
Having been through two messy divorces he guards his emotions closely.
His health is always on the verge of collapse. Underneath the Joburg
South accent and bad tattoos he is a canny investigator.
BRENDON DANIELS AS TJ
Timothy Jacobs, TJ for short, is a physically strong and intimidating
black man, with a big laugh and a short fuse. He is extremely impulsive
and often moves boldly in the wrong direction. He separated from his wife
and childhood sweetheart Melanie.

CHARACTERS
UDO KIER AS FLORIAN VON STRAATEN
Florian is flamboyant, paranoid and unpredictable, his accent as mysterious as his past.
Stories abound about him. People say he was a mercenary, an arms dealer, a drug dealer and
a killer. He is exceptionally private, a man of few words who gives very little away. He has
a violent temper and several nom-de-plumes which he uses when it suites him. Florian has no
allegiance to anybody except himself and will take out anybody who stands in his way.
MICHELLE ANG AS VERONIQUE VON STRAATEN
Veronique is sexy, devious and dangerous. She’s learnt to be hard and manipulative from an
early age. She’s extremely ambitious and will do almost anything to achieve her desires. She
uses her sexuality as a weapon. She is the femme fatale of the story and the catalyst for
the misery that unfolds but when everyone looks for her, she has slipped out the back door.
SAM REIF AS HAMILTON LAWSON
Privileged, deluded and more than a little insane. On the surface Hamilton is suave, educated
and charming. Adopted as a baby to rich parents and brought up in Joburg’s wealthiest suburbs.
His genealogy never fitted well with his sophisticated surroundings and from an early age
he became a rebellious child constantly rescued by his long-suffering parents. He lives in
a dream world where he plays out his James Bond fantasies in his private detective agency.
He surrounds himself with losers and misfits. He is a practicing nudist. He falls under
Veronique’s spell and is the ruthless killer of Mary Kunene.

CHARACTERS
KIM ENGELBRECHT AS MELANIE JACOBS
Melanie is a stunningly beautiful black woman on the outside but tough as
nails underneath. Like TJ she grew up tough in the township of Westbury;
a gang infested community where only the toughest survive.
SARAH POTTER AS SAVANNAH
Al ’s only child to his estranged first wife Valerie. Savannah is a fiery
and reckless redhead. She’s works as a tattoo artist in a thriving Joburg
parlour. She is openly gay and involved in a tempestuous relationship
with Suzie, a drummer in an Afrikaans rock band.

CHARACTERS
GRANT SWANBY AS CONRAD SMYTHE
Life is a struggle for Conrad Smythe. Born into difficult circumstances he tries his best but always
comes up short. He is tall and lanky but his self-esteem is so low, it has stooped his posture. He
suffers from “black holes” in his memory that have caused major problems in his life. He is easily
exploited and manipulated by more cunning people, like Hamilton. He loves his wife Blanche desperately
and hates to disappoint her. He becomes an unwitting accomplice to Mary’s murder.
LINDA SOKHULU AS MARY KUNENE
Mary is firm, steadfast and loyal. She came to Joburg from the Eastern Cape with nothing and has learnt
to survive in the crazy city. She has worked as the head cook at Cranks for fifteen years and runs the
kitchen with an iron fist, taking no nonsense from anyone, not even Florian. Her two kids are her pride
and joy, one lives with her Mother in the Eastern Cape and the baby, lives with her. She likes to drink
black label quarts from the bottle and smoke Coutleigh cigarettes. Sometimes she drinks too much. Life
is hard.

EPISODIC BREAKDOWN
ONE
A failed abalone raid in Chinatown leaves TJ and Al embarrassed, out of pocket and desperately looking for a new gig. A confession letter found
under a carpet, describing a murder committed four years earlier, is brought to their attention. To solve the case, they will need a suspect, a
motive and most importantly a body. Clues in the confession lead them to the obsequious Conrad Smythe who claims to be dogged by “black holes’ in
his memory. Posing as cops they put him under massive pressure and he cracks telling them what he knows. Based on this they information they dig
up his furious German landlord’s back yard looking for the body but come away empty handed. What they learn is that the body has been exhumed,
smashed into pieces and scattered all over Johannesburg.
TWO
Out of financial desperation TJ secretly takes a job as an insurance investigator. With the murder case slipping away, Al makes a breakthrough
which brings him into stark conflict with the sinister proprietor of Cranks restaurant, Florian Von Straaten. Al has realised that the murdered
woman, Mary Kunene worked as a cook at the restaurant for fifteen years before she disappeared without a trace. Florian knows way more than he
is letting on and explodes when Al mistakenly shows him the confession letter penned by Hamilton Lawson. Al must beat a hasty retreat realizing
how much he relies on TJ’s muscle. When Al and TJ return to the restaurant, the doors are firmly locked with a hand-written sign saying simply,
“closed until further notice”.

EPISODIC BREAKDOWN
THREE
Florian has vanished into thin air while TJ battles with the insurance job and keeping it a secret from Al. Al discovers the problems at Cranks
started four years earlier when Florian’s daughter Veronique arrived from Australia. She was twenty-one, wild and out of control and hadn’t seen
her father since she was two tears old. Veronique started a frenzied affair with dodgy private investigator Hamilton Lawson. Together they hatched
a scheme to steal the illegal foreign currency in Florian’s safe and blame the staff at Cranks. The case starts to overwhelm Al who collapses
after an all-night drinking binge. While Al lies unconscious TJ promises him that if he wakes up they will get the team back together.
FOUR
TJ helps Al escape from hospital with the tubes still hanging out of him. Turning their attention back to the case they grill the hapless Conrad
Smythe for info about the alleged murderer Hamilton Lawson. Suddenly able to remember seemingly lost memories Conrad tells them how Veronique
got Florian to hire Hamilton as a private investigator to find the thieves. Hamilton gets his crew to kidnap and torture the staff to confess to
a crime he and Veronique had committed! Mary found out about the affair between Hamilton and Veronique and had to be silenced. Hamilton kills
Mary by stabbing her through the head with a knitting needle. He tells Florian she was the one responsible for the theft. Al and TJ find crucial
information about the corrupt cop Carl Andrews, one of Hamilton’s crew who can hopefully help them put the missing pieces of the puzzle back
together.

EPISODIC BREAKDOWN
FIVE
Before they can get to him, an inebriated Carl Andrews warns Hamilton that people are sniffing around about Mary Kunene. Hamilton realises this
must be the snitch Conrad and tries to kill him by running him over with his Range Rover in a caravan park. The slippery Conrad narrowly escapes.
Al and TJ track down, the now blind drunk, Carl Andrews and force him to turn on his former boss Hamilton. He fills in the pieces of the puzzle,
how Mary had miraculously survived the stabbing and crawled to a country hospital. Hamilton and Veronique mastermind Mary’s kidnapping by hiring
an ambulance, dressing up as Doctors and abducting her from the hospital. Not being cold blooded killers none of them had the courage to finish
her off. The next day they discover that Mary has died in the night. After heated debate and some mystifying logic, Conrad suggests they bury her
in the small courtyard behind his house.
SIX
Al and TJ further interrogate an unravelling Conrad who can finally remember the missing parts of the story. Florian discovered his daughters part
in the theft and turned up the heat on her and Hamilton. Veronique skipped the country with the cash leaving behind an angry and bitter Hamilton.
Believing his life is in danger from Florian, Hamilton writes a detailed confession letter which he entrusts to Conrad. Conrad hides the letter
under his carpet and almost immediately forgets where he put it. TJ and Al have at last figured out the entire twisted story but without a body
they still have no case. Based on information gleaned by Al during a date with a Bosnian pathologist, they return to Conrad’s back yard, this
time searching for tiny bone fragments rather than a body. They find some minute finger bones and can finally prove that Mary was in fact buried
there. Hamilton persuades his last faithful crew member David Maxwell that their only hope is to kill Conrad. Desperate to save his life Conrad
shows David the confession letter that implicates all of them. Instead of killing Conrad, David turns his gun on Hamilton shooting him several
times. A triumphant Al and TJ hand the case over to the police and get their cash. On their way to celebrate their victory they are mowed down
in a hail of bullets by lowlifes from an entirely unrelated case. Before passing out, a bleeding Al, looks at a wounded TJ and says, “there has
to be an easier way to make a living”.

VISUAL REFERENCES

VISUAL REFERENCES

CONTACT
STAN JOSEPH
Email
stan@ochre.co.za
Mobile +27 83 309 9426
ROBBIE THORPE
Email robbie@ochre.co.za
Mobile + 27 82 450 6180