A gritty crime thriller exposes the lethal legacy of South Africa's secret chemical weapons
In short: In the 2013 film Zulu, two detectives navigate a landscape of corruption and trauma in Cape Town. While investigating a series of brutal murders, they uncover a terrifying plot linked to Project Coast, a real-life biological weapons program from the apartheid era designed to target the black population.
Directed by Jérôme Salle, this French-South African production stars Forest Whitaker as Ali Sokhela and Orlando Bloom as Brian Epkeen. The narrative begins with the discovery of a young woman's body in the Botanical Gardens, triggering an investigation that pulls the detectives into a web involving a new, potent form of methamphetamine known as tik. The film draws inspiration from the novel by Caryl Férey, which won the 2008 French Grand Prix for Best Crime Novel.
The central conflict revolves around the dark history of Project Coast, an initiative established during the Cold War to develop biological weaponry. The plot suggests that former scientists involved in the project, such as the fictional Doctor Joost Opperman, sought to revive these efforts to decimate the black population of South Africa. The detectives' pursuit of justice leads them from the streets of Cape Town to the harsh Namib Desert, where the remnants of this state-sponsored violence collide with personal vendettas.
The film serves as a stark exploration of post-apartheid trauma. Ali Sokhela is portrayed as a man haunted by a childhood tragedy involving necklacing and a brutal attack by a police dog, while his partner Brian struggles with alcoholism and a fractured family life. Their investigation eventually reveals that the drug trade and the remnants of the apartheid-era militia, the DPS, are inextricably linked to the same forces that once sought to engineer racial genocide.
Despite its international debut at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the film faced distribution hurdles in the United States. Director Jérôme Salle noted that Harvey Weinstein, who held the rights, hesitated to release it, reportedly believing the subject matter was too specific to the South African experience for American viewers. In its home country, the film was released under the title City of Violence.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Zulu (2013 film)
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