With Alles Malan, family is absolutely everything

Drawing inspiration from stories from their own families, directors Corné and René van Rooyen teamed up with accomplished writers Leon Kruger (Die Spreeus, Buurtwag, Die Byl)  and Retief Scholtz (Dwaalster, Ekstra Medium, Slaaf) to write the script for Alles Malan, a truly wholesome family drama that takes place in Paarl, just outside Cape Town. The team placed a lot of importance on the text in the sense that it had to be genuinely personal but at the same time have that authenticity of everyday life for the audience to effortlessly identify with. 

At the head of the Malan house, we have Derik and Brenda. The story kicks off when their firstborn, Frik, returns from an eight-year stint in the UK along with his wife, Tessa, and two teenagers, Elani and Freek, to take over the family business, Malan Transport, from his father. On the surface it seems like a happy reunion of loved ones and has that familiar feeling of a family returning home after a long holiday, but if everything was perfect there would be no story to tell and the Malans are put through trials and tribulations that test the family relationships.

Frik’s younger brother, Nico, is immature, a little bit of a mommy’s boy and has commitment issues when it comes to his girlfriend, Lee-Anne, who is a teacher at the school that all the teenagers in the family attend. That is probably one of the reasons Frik had to return to South Africa – his brother might not be the right fit to run the family business.

However,  it becomes quite clear fairly early one that the stubborn patriarch, Derik, might be the reason the walls seem to be coming down around the Malans, and it affects everyone. Tessa struggles with career choices, also partly brought on by her daughter’s teen pregnancy. At the same time she has to address their adopted son Freek’s problems at school – dealing with racism and bullies. This is on top of the drama that usually accompanies teenagers and puberty.

Frik struggles to keep the family and the family business together while he clashes with his controlling father and man-boy brother. To the viewer, it might be an all-too-familiar gemors.

Albert Maritz (Wesens) and Elsabé Daneel (The Recce) star as Derik and Brenda Malan with Ivan Zimmermann (Bloedbroers) as Frik and Nadia Valvekens (Binnelanders) as his wife, Tessa. Their two children, Elani and Freek, are played by Greteli Fincham (Ekstra Medium) and Mateo Olivier (Fiela se Kind). Sean-Marco Vorster (Legacy) is the younger Malan son, Nico, and his girlfriend Lee-Anne is played by Nicole Fortuin (Projek Dina).

The series deals with universal issues, but is so uniquely South African at the same time. It asks questions such as:

How does one get the attention of someone you are infatuated with? 

What is the role of the modern father in South Africa and how is the male’s role changing in the contemporary Afrikaans family?

What happens when a wife earns more than her husband?

Who do you choose when you are in love with two people? 

Alles Malan doesn’t necessarily answer all these questions, but it does make the viewer reflect on some big questions and that is perhaps the reason it is so wildly popular amongst South Africans, with audiences calling for Season 2.

Well, dear viewers, your calls have been answered. In plain Afrikaans: Ons is lank nog nie klaar gekuier by die Malans nie!

The good news is that the second season of Alles Malan starts on 30 November 2021 on DStv. All the popular characters are back, and as with all good family dramas, there are more than enough twists and turns to keep viewers glued to their screens for another thirteen episodes. For now, you can watch the first season on Showmax. And by “watch”, of course, we mean “binge”!