Dwaalster is a South African, Afrikaans-language television drama series created by Nicola Hanekom and set in the fictional Karoo town of Maanhaarsdrif, which is populated by interesting and mysterious residents.
In Maanhaarsdrif there is also a fixation with stars and stargazing, while some inhabitants are even moonstruck (proverbially speaking).
Annabel (Tinarie van Wyk-Loots), a journalist, returns to Maanhaarsdrif after receiving death threats in Cape Town when she worked on a story about corruption.
Her father, Frans (Albert Maritz) and her meter maid sister, Ragel-Lee (Erica Wessels), still live in Maanhaarsdrif, while her childhood sweetheart, Stian (Jacques Bessenger) is also still in town.
Annabel feels like she was never gone, but there is also something different about Maanhaarsdrif. Time didn't stand still and a couple - Luan and Ruan (Neels van Jaarsveld and Terence Bridgett) - bought the local hotel and did it up in the hope of attracting stargazing tourists.
There is also Maanhaarsdrif's enthusiastic mayor, Ivy (June van Merch) and her bestie Lettie (Joanie Combrink), who regularly butt heads with each other and others.
But old memories soon come to haunt Annabel and there are a whole lot of skeletons hidden in each character's closet.
Maanhaarsdrif may be light years away from Annabel's life as a journalist, but the effects of the publication of her shocking articles follow her into the Karoo, with terrifying consequences for her and her loved ones.
Other characters include the newspaper editor, Peter (David Isaacs); the schizophrenic hobo Bliksem (Carel Nel); the down-to-Earth but rich motorcylist Charlie (Albert Pretorius); the hotel's barman, Randall (Jarrid Geduld); and the manic depressive writer, Lukas (Andre Odendaal).
There's also the waitress Gina (Tarryn Wyngaard), Kasper (Gerben Kamper) and the Russian butcher Petrov (Grant Swanby); while Kwêla presenter Hannes van Wyk guest stars as himself.
Dwaalster is an M-Net Original Production produced by kykNET, created and written by Nicola Hanekom. The series is executive produced by Jaco Smit, Herman Binge, Roelof Storm, Louis Botha and ARCO V.C. for Marche Media; the supervising producer for kykNET is Marguerite Albrecht. Jaco Bouwer is the director and the music is by Pierre-Henri Wicomb.
The series was filmed in Bonnievale, Cape Town and Calvinia.