Zero (2025)

The new film from Jean Luc Herbulot (SALOUM) is getting a UK cinema and digital release from Blue Finch.

An American man wakes up on a bus in Dakar with a bomb strapped to his chest. It's already counting down as a voice (played by Willem Dafoe) tells him he's going to have to complete five missions before he will be set free. The first involves obtaining a mobile phone from a well-known wrestler and the tasks escalate from there. 

Along the way he encounters another American in a similar situation, with the two being expected to work together on the tasks. Meanwhile they continue to try and find ways to escape their situation while attempting to discover why they have ended up as they have in the first place.

This all sounds fairly generic and entertaining Hollywood thriller stuff, but this is a film that may well subvert your expectations from that point of view. Seasoned fans of this sort of plot may well be able to guess what's going on, at least in part, but it's still worth sticking with this one until the end.

Herbulot's previous SALOUM was a horror picture about mercenaries getting more than they bargained for in a remote town. ZERO is an effective and engrossing action picture that at less than 90 minutes doesn't outstay its welcome. It also suggests Herbulot might be keen to become a one man Senegalese exploitation industry and on the basis of these two eminently effective films that is to be both admired and encouraged. Here's the trailer:

Jean Luc Herbulot's ZERO will have a limited cinema release on Friday 25th July 2025 before coming out on Digital on Monday 11th August 2025