How Rea Rangaka Was Drawn to the World of ‘Savage Beauty’

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Rangaka says he was attracted to the characters in the story when he first read the script. “I always love witnessing or trying to understand characters through their behavior. When you're planning the show, you get character briefs and all that stuff. Some people have that privilege of actually looking at those notes and understanding who the character is,” he says. “For me, if it doesn't jump out at you [in the script] in terms of who this character is, how they move, their contradictions, what they align themselves with — generally, if it’s not in the script — then it won’t be on the screen. I always just look for really interesting characters going through things,” he adds.

Rangaka directed three of the six episodes and oversaw the entire production. He’s well-versed in each character’s internal conflict, as well as the multiple storylines that revolve around the Bhengu beauty empire. He says that his role as a director is to shape what is on paper and translate it using the filmic language of lights, camera, actors and more. The script is scripture to him, but he maintains that a director who is in tune with themselves will inadvertently infuse their personality into the picture.

Rangaka’s journey into directing happened by accident. He’d told his parents that he was going to study speech therapy, but the plot twisted when he arrived on campus. “I was supposed to do speech therapy. I went out, I got drunk, because of my hangover, I didn't sign up for speech therapy. And then I had to do a General BA at [the University of Cape Town].” Rangaka applied himself to the course and earned decent marks. He went to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2009. He obtained his MFA in film directing, and was awarded Best Director during his year for his film, Ode In Blood. His front-of-camera works include The Mayor, Saints and Sinners and Troy: Fall of a City.

He does not necessarily have a directing style, and says that his job is to deliver the story in an emotionally pleasing and satisfying way. The Savage Beauty world is accentuated by the choice of locations, something Rangaka credits to the expertise of Marna Heunis, an award-winning production designer whose work includes Intersexions, 4Play and Keeping Score.

“When we say, ‘Listen, we’re looking for a house, and it’s a Black family, they must be rich, but not typically rich,’ she gets into the car and she looks for the location. It depends on how good you want your series or your movie to be,” he says.

Working with Matshepo Maja and Harold Holscher, the two other directors, was easy because of the conversations that happened during the first season.

“In season two, there’s kind of a rubric. Most of the actors, the shooting style, we can change some of it, but not a lot. A lot of the stuff from season one [has carried into season two]. There was already a structure for the new directors to come in. The collaboration is between the creator of the show, the head writer Lebogang [Mogashoa], the producers of Quizzical pictures and the producers of Netflix. What we do is we read the scripts and we discuss, like, it would be cool to try this. Once we’ve agreed that this is the direction we’re taking, your episode is your episode. We’ve discussed the major beats and the milestones you need to hit for each episode,” reveals the director.

Rangaka sees his role as a privileged one, and deems it his responsibility to carry the hopes and dreams of the cast. He reckons that directing is a position of servitude, not power. He has learned a few industry rules in the years that he’s been working in it, and has found a way to balance his artistic aspirations with the suits’ commercial inclinations. For him, it’s an exercise in restraint and calmness, a true test of character that requires one to disregard their ego.

Specific to the series, Rangaka says that the character arcs of Charlie (Lebogang Fisher) and Phila (Jesse Suntele) have fascinated him the most. Charlie is introduced during the funeral of Ndu Bhengu (Oros Mampofu) alongside silver screen veterans Tony Kgeroge and Abena Ayivor. She is the over-eager beaver who will do anything to put a dent on the side of the embattled empire, and recruits Phila into her grand plan. Phila shows a matured side, one that stands at odds with the playboy persona of the first season.

We conclude our conversation by seeking Rangaka’s opinion about how streaming services have altered the film landscape in South Africa. Not much, according to him. There’s more emphasis on the human being, he says.

“It works in different scenarios. For example, things like sexual harassment and how we deal with it on screen. There’s been the introduction of intimacy coordinators. Other than that, I don’t think they’ve changed the landscape in any monumental way. I think South African crews and production companies, when they want to, produce some of the best work that exists in the world, if they’re not interested in just making a quick buck,” he says.

“What I’d like to see from the streamers is a little bit more trust, them being less prescriptive, or speaking as if they know what the audience wants,” Rangaka concludes.