Zero (2025)

Jean-Luc Herbulot's Sengalese time bomb thriller is an intriguing piece of film making, and a refreshing take on the sub-genre of thrillers with the simple premise of something like Phone Booth (2002) or even Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995).

In this case, American Hus Miller (who also co-writes) wakes up on a bus in Dakar with an explosive device attached to his chest that is set to go off in ten hours' time. A young lady tells him to put a Bluetooth device in his ear, and answer when the phone rings, before she exits post haste. When it does, we hear the dulcet and threatening tones of Willem Dafoe- something that you really wouldn't be expecting if you knew nothing going in. This same set up has been repeated with another American (Cam McHarg), and the pair are forced to work together- both in terms of what Dafoe's character wants them to do, but also to try and figure their way out of the situation.

So Zero's set up might well be something that you've seen a hundred times before. Where Herbulot's film differs dramatically however, is in its genre mash-ups; something that he's used to great effect before in gangster-horror flick Saloum (2021). Here, he thrusts a lot of comedic elements into the film's first half combined with several slow-mo shots whilst various frenetic action sequences take place; it sometimes feels a bit like Mission: Impossible on acid.

What it also manages to provide is an investment in the story. We have no idea where it's going and you're genuinely interested in finding out why this is all happening. The setting of Senegal and the fact that it's two Americans with bombs strapped to them immediately suggests a political angle, and indeed that's where it ends up- but it's in the way we get there, the characters we meet, and the culture we begin to learn about that makes Zero works so well.

At only eighty-eight minutes, it's an extremely slight film that doesn't outstay its welcome. And where a lot of films of this type often run out of steam in the final quarter, Zero holds your attention to it's almost inevitable conclusion. Herbulot has provided us with a political thriller that has its own inimitable style that initially throws you off guard; before very quickly winning you over and providing you with a thought provoking, frenetic, blackly comedic- and impressive piece of work. 7.7/10