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An American wakes up on a Dakar bus to find an explosive device strapped to his chest in Jean Luc Herbulot’s propulsive and strikingly shot action thriller

Set in Senegal’s capital Dakar, this action thriller is so strikingly shot, so propulsively edited and so confident in its tonal shifts that by the end viewers are likely to feel enervated and stunned, but in a good way. It has one of those literal ticking-time-bomb narratives; a corny device to be sure, but one that Congolese writer-director Jean Luc Herbulot, with assistance from main actor and co-writer Hus Miller, manipulates in fresh and interesting ways. Certainly it will inspire some viewers to take a plunge into Herbulot’s back catalogue, which includes festival-anointed gangster-horror flick Saloum, another adept genre mash-up set in Senegal.

The conceit here is that Miller’s white, American-accented unnamed protagonist, called simply #1 in freeze-framed titles, wakes...

Warner Bros.’ “Superman” held the No. 1 position at the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second weekend, adding £4.8 million ($6.5 million) and bringing its total to £16.3 million ($22 million), according to Comscore.

Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” maintained a firm grip on second place, grossing $4.4 million over its third weekend for a cumulative total of $33.5 million. Warner Bros.’ racing drama “F1” remained in third, taking $1.7 million and pushing its tally to $24.5 million after four weeks.

Two new titles entered the top five. Paramount’s reboot “Smurfs” landed in fourth place with a debut of $1.6 million, while Sony’s slasher revival “I Know What You Did Last Summer” opened fifth with $1.2 million.

Universal’s “How To Train Your Dragon” continued its strong run in sixth place, earning $910,894 for a total of $27.5 million. Sony’s “28 Years Later” followed in seventh with $591,070, lifting its total to $19 million.

Disney’s “Elio” placed eighth...

The sudden, disorienting plunge into “Zero” mirrors its protagonist’s ordeal: an American businessman, known only as “One” (Hus Miller), awakens on a bustling Dakar bus not to the Senegalese vacation he anticipated, but to the horrifying reality of a bomb locked to his chest.

A ten-hour countdown begins. His unseen tormentor, a chillingly calm voice (Willem Dafoe) delivered through an earpiece, issues commands for a series of missions. The vibrant, unfamiliar streets of Senegal’s capital become a labyrinth of immediate peril, transforming a personal journey into a desperate scramble for survival against a technologically mediated, invisible power.

The film instantly establishes a framework where global interconnectedness manifests as vulnerability, and the individual becomes a pawn in a larger, unseen game.

Pawns in a High-Stakes Game: Initial Disorientation and Forced Alliances

One’s confusion is palpable, a visceral representation of cultural and situational displacement. Miller portrays him as a...

Jean Luc Herbulot’s Zero opens with a poetic metaphor about how everything starts from nothing. Instantly, it forces you to pay attention, especially since the next scene introduces the character known as One (Hus Miller), who wakes up with a time bomb strapped to him. A little while after this, a second character, Two (Cam McHarg), comes into play – also with a time bomb strapped to him. The pair get brought together, led only by a mysterious man’s voice (Willem Dafoe) issuing them missions throughout Senegal via the phone. Perhaps it’s the fault of the trailer, or even my own preconceived expectations, to think that this would be a riff on Speed, or even Saw, believing Zero would leave breadcrumbs throughout the story to a big reveal of how these two American men are somehow connected or chosen for their fate here. In the end, though, I...

Congolese filmmaker Jean Luc Herbulot grabbed the Cine-world’s curiosity with the 2021 horror-thriller, “Saloum.” Despite the heavy influences of many genres, the film stood apart due to its innate African essence with the astute amalgamation of genre tropes and African mythology. So it is surprising that his latest, “Zero,” comes across as a tepid rehash of a multitude of the early new Millennium Hollywood films where the American hero has to survive the heat and the dingy alleys of a developing country, all with a yellow tinge.

When a film starts with the protagonist waking up on a crowded bus in Dakar (The capital city of Senegal) to find himself strapped with a bomb, one cannot help but be hooked. What follows is the familiar tale of American citizens trying to make the best out of a tricky situation in an unfamiliar territory and culture. I say ‘Citizens’ in plural...

Dread Central has landed an exclusive look at Zero, the high-octane action thriller set to hit screens on April 11 via Well Go USA.

Set in Dakar, Senegal, Zero follows two strangers who wake up with bombs strapped to their chests—each rigged to explode in ten hours. With no memory of how they got there and guided by a mysterious voice, the duo is thrust into a series of chaotic, high-stakes missions that spiral into violence and destruction. As unrest grips the city, erupting in protest against Western influence, the unlikely partners must navigate a volatile landscape to seek out redemption before time runs out.

Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot (Saloum), the film blends sharp political commentary with edge-of-your-seat suspense and dark humor. The ensemble cast includes Willem Dafoe, Hus Miller, Cam McHarg, Gary Dourdan (CSI), Roger Sallah, and Moran Rosenblatt.

The exclusive clip, available now on Dread Central, offers...

"If you want to live - Run!" Whoa! Don't miss this one. Well Go USA has revealed an official trailer for the action thriller film from Africa titled Zero, the latest creation of director Jean Luc Herbulot. It debuted at Beyond Fest and the Sitges Film Festival last year (read my review) and it will be dropping in US theaters and on VOD this April to watch. This has such a bold & crazy concept! Two American strangers searching for purpose in the city of Dakar, Senegal, wake up with bombs strapped to their chests, counting down from ten hours. Controlled by a mysterious voice on a phone (Willem Dafoe), they must complete a series of chaotic missions with devastating consequences. As the city erupts in protest against Western influences, the two confused men race for redemption. ZER0 is a thrilling, darkly humorous tale of survival, connection, and the human search for meaning.

If you’ve ever dreamed of having the voice of four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (Nosferatu) narrating your every move, then we’ve got the movie for you. Except — for the film’s leading characters, Hus Miller’s Number One (You Can’t Say No) and Cam McHarg’s Number Two (Spaghetti Junction), the constant rambling of Dafoe’s voice is more of a nightmare than a dream. Today, Collider is happy to debut the exclusive trailer and first-look poster for the upcoming action-thriller, Zero, which is set to arrive on April 11.

Well Go USA Entertainment has Jean Luc Herbulot’s action thriller Zero from Blue Finch Films for a US theatrical release in the second quarter of 2025.

Two Americans searching for a sense of purpose wake-up in Senegal with bombs strapped to their chests and 10 hours to find out why.

Zero was written by Herbulot and Hus Miller, who served as producers on the project alongside Senegal’s Paméla Diop , alongside Steven Adams and Gary Dourdan out of the US.

Miller also stars, alongside Cam McHarg and Moran Rosenblatt.

Blue Finch also represents Lesbian Space Princess, which is playing at the Berlinale in Panorama.

Two Americans wake up in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, with bombs strapped to their chests. The timers on the vests tell them they have less than nine hours to find out why. Calling them #1 and #2 a mysterious voice gives them instructions via headsets, a series of tasks that when completed will result in their release. It is a race against time as temperatures rise around Dakar, in the air and throughout its people. Congolese film director and screenwriter Jean Luc Herbulot is back with the action thriller Zero. Together with producer, co-writer and star Hus Miller (who also produced Herbulot’s international breakout hit Saloum) the pair have made a bit of a scathing attack on global powers and their influence in...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

U.K.-based sales and distribution company Blue Finch Films has secured worldwide rights to “Zero,” an action thriller directed by Jean Luc Herbulot, known for his 2021 TIFF Midnight Madness selection “Saloum.”

The film has been selected for Sitges Film Festival’s first wave, with additional festival announcements expected.

“Zero” follows two Americans who awaken in Senegal with explosive devices attached to their bodies and a 10-hour deadline to uncover the reason. Guided by a mysterious voice on the phone, they must complete a series of tasks that inadvertently cause chaos in Dakar. Against a backdrop of growing anti-Western sentiment, the protagonists race against time for survival and redemption.

The screenplay was co-written by Herbulot and Hus Miller, with Miller also producing alongside Paméla Diop, Steven Adams and Gary Dourdan. The cast includes Miller, Cam McHarg, Moran Rosenblatt, Roger Sallah and Dourdan.

Herbulot said: “I have always admired Sergio Leone’s Westerns,...

Watch a Clip from Saloum: "U.S. Fantastic Fest Premiere Saloum is a cool and kinetic genre shifting supernatural thriller in which a legendary trio of on-the-run mercenaries carrying a stolen gold bounty and a kidnapped drug lord take refuge in a remote and mystical area of Senegal, where creepy curses and sinister ancestral forces unleash hell on them all.

Uniquely inspired by African-Carribean folklore and mysticism as well as western and action/horror hybrids such as From Dusk Till Dawn and Predator, Saloum was written & directed by acclaimed African filmmaker Jean Luc Herbulot and is the producing debut of Senegal-based filmmaker / entrepreneur Pamela Diop.

Saloum also marks the feature film debut for their new pan African production company Lacme Studios, founded in 2019 by the film’s creative team of Jean Luc Herbulot and Pamela Diop.

Writer/Director: Jean Luc Herbulot (Netflix’s Dealer, Canal + Afrique’s Sakho & Mangane...

Three mercenaries on the run with a plane full of gold and a dark secret in their past are the starting point for Jean Luc Herbulot’s Senegalese genre-bender “Saloum,” which has its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival.

The film centers on the Bangui Hyenas, a mythic trio of mercenaries whose plane is shot down as they’re fleeing a coup in Guinea-Bissau. Transporting a bounty of stolen gold and a kidnapped drug lord, they’re forced to take refuge in a remote and mystical region of Senegal.

But as they lay low in the Saloum Delta waiting to repair and refuel their plane, a mysterious secret from the past emerges, unleashing dark ancestral forces that threaten to consume them all.

“Saloum” is the first production from Lacme Studios, a Dakar-based production company that Herbulot and co-founder Pamela Diop hope will reshape narratives...

Film marks first production from Pamela Diop’s pan-African Lacme Studios.

Paris-based Elle Driver has acquired worldwide rights to Senegalese supernatural thriller Saloum ahead of its world premiere in the Midnight Madness strand of the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF).

Congolese filmmaker Jean Luc Herbulot, who made the Canal + and Netflix crime series Sakho & Mangane, wrote and directed the story about a notorious trio of mercenaries on the run during the 2003 coup in Guinea Bissau.

When the soldiers of fortune arrive in the Sine-Saloum Delta region of Senegal with stolen gold and a kidnapped drug lord in tow they...