Now is the moment for African TV series, and Netflix tries to ride the wave with a crime thriller drama that, right from its settings, aims to immerse the viewer in the atmosphere that today characterizes the continent’s largest, most developed and populated cities. The locations of Umthetho, a reimagining of the Brazilian series Brotherhood, on the platform from August 14, 2026, actually convey the vibrant dynamism of places like Johannesburg, where life moves fast. Traditions mingle with a lifestyle that is increasingly modern and Westernized, and there isn’t — as the flip side of the coin — a shortage of tensions and dynamics that can sometimes be difficult to grasp.
What it’s about
Directed by Mandla N, the new African Netflix series stars Mbali (Nqobile Nunu Khumalo): a young, talented, and idealistic state prosecutor, whose life is destined to be upended in unforeseen ways. The woman discovers that her older brother, Moses (Tony Kgorogea), whom she believed dead, is actually in prison and from there heads a sort of inmates’ union.
When even the younger brother winds up in a delicate situation, to save his skin Mbali is forced to collaborate with Moses and his group, becoming something of a spy and risking her own life, thereby betraying the ideals of justice in which she has always believed.
Where the series was filmed
The African reboot of Brotherhood was filmed entirely in South Africa, mostly in Johannesburg and its surroundings.
The Place, the Prison
As the plot hints, one of the main settings of the series is the prison—“The Place” as it is often nicknamed by the protagonists—where Moses is incarcerated: there isn’t a single location of Umthetho that can be traced to the actual place of confinement, and what is shown on screen is not the real Johannesburg prison. The scenes inside the justice institution were shot in studio: Media City Studios in Johannesburg, located in the Randburg suburb to the northwest of the city, are among the principal places where Umthetho was filmed.
Johannesburg
On-screen it is still possible to recognize numerous corners of the city: one of the most modern and the second most populated in South Africa. Millions of people pass through each day, the city nicknamed “the City of Gold”, to study, work, shop, or simply enjoy the lively nightlife for which it is famous. The series tries to convey this vitality, which at times becomes the city’s frenetic pace, with views of the city, details of the busiest streets, and sequences that slip into the hidden corners, especially to the eyes of tourists and casual visitors.
The Hillbrow Tower, the nearly 270-meter-tall telecommunications tower located on Goldreich Street and a defining element of Johannesburg’s skyline, is easily recognizable in many scenes.
The Johannesburg hinterland was used as a location for Umthetho mainly to portray the deep contrasts that animate the city today more than ever, well represented in the series between the world Mbali used to inhabit as a state prosecutor and the dark, criminal world of her brothers.
In the suburban district of Gauteng, between modern residential complexes and corners more clearly belonging to the underworld, some chase and confrontation scenes were filmed.
