Diksha Sundriyal
With the reach that Netflix has all over the world, you’d think that they have established a base in every country. Despite being in the game for a good part of the decade now, the streaming service is still working on it. But surely, slowly and steadily, it is dominating the television industry globally. Its next stop: South Africa.
In the trend to keep its first original projects kick-ass and intriguing, Netflix has chosen to enter the South African market with the story of a spy. Starring Pearl Thusi in the lead role, ‘Queen Sono’ follows the story of the eponymous heroine who works as a secret agent for Special Operations Group, an agency that protects the interests of the country. She is described as a “reckless but gets the job done” kind of agent, i.e., the best kind. While she is awesome at her job, she also has personal problems. On her latest assignment, she discovers a connection with her family, which complicates things for her.
‘Queen Sono’ offers everything that the audience expects from a good spy drama. It has action scenes that will knock the breath out of you, along with the car chases, explosions, and the whole package. Another important part of such stories is the location. The kind of place an agent has to work defines the dangers for them. Is it seemingly safe and familiar territory, or is it a different country with a completely different language and rules that turn things even riskier for the protagonist? Here are all the filming locations for ‘Queen Sono.’
Where Was Queen Sono Filmed?
A mission can take a spy to any corner of the world. In order to complete her mission, Queen Sono, too, has to travel to foreign countries and take whatever cover is required to get the required information and accomplish the task. To frame the story of such a complicated spy, the storytellers also have to figure out the places that would best bring out the strengths, as well as the weaknesses, of their characters.
Because the story is based in South Africa and is centred on the political and cultural issues in the country and its neighbours, the continent of Africa remained the focus for the production team. The primary filming location for the series is South Africa, mostly in Johannesburg and the surrounding cities. The production also turned towards other African countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. A total of 37 different locations across Africa were employed to bring together the story of ‘Queen Sono’.
Director Esme Viviers accepted the challenge of the unusual script, and had to explore a lot of possibilities about where the protagonist would go from there and how they would capture the “look and feel of those locations.”
Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg is the focal point of the plot in ‘Queen Sono’. Various locations all over the city are featured in the show. The city also subbed for other places, where sets were created to make it look like the characters are on a different part of the continent. For example, The Rand Club in the city stood in for what is supposed to be a place in Harare.
The Ruimsig Country Club in Roodepoort also opened its doors for the filming of the first South African Netflix Original series.
Johannesburg Park Station, Sandton and Soweto also served as the locations for some important scenes in the series.
To make the story more interesting, the filming crew stepped outside South Africa and explored the locales of places like Lagos and Zanzibar.
