An American thriller with a political rhythm filmed in Dakar August 18, 2026
It’s the story of a puppeteer. He has neither body nor face. He is just one voice. These are the tribulations of two Americans who carry bombs into Dakar, and must accomplish missions under the control of the puppeteer in order to become free again. “Zero” is an action film with a political tone, shot entirely in Dakar and directed by Jean-Luc Huberlot. “Zero” is also a plea for the reappropriation of our story.
“But wesh, wake up, Rican!” You don’t sleep when you have an explosive as your underwear. Above all, not on a bus, in Dakar, in broad daylight.” But he remains in his role as “Sleepy Joe”. It is also his freedom: in this way, director Jean-Luc Herbulot decided to introduce his “Zero”. With, therefore, a sequence which says that in this film, it will clash.
A bomb, in these conditions, is certainly very serious. Fortunately, Jean-Luc, also author of “Saloum”, knows how to laugh. A touch of very Senegalese lightness, which travels on public transport, helps the director to mix “very serious” and “very funny”. And so it will be throughout the film.
“Zero” is the story of two human bombs, who crisscross the Senegalese capital, guided by a mysterious voice who gives them missions through calls and messages. This invisible character carried by an omnipresent voice is Willem Dafoe. Yes, yes, the same one who played the Green Goblin in Spider-Man. In “Zero”, we will also see Gary Durbin (in the role of Daniel) whom many Senegalese knew as an investigator in “Les Experts”.
“Your deaths serve a great purpose”
Ngor, Mbeubeuss, Colobane, Le Plateau… It is in the city of Dakar that the plot takes place. The game, comically dangerous, takes place in a Senegalese capital transformed into a map, as gamers and fans of Gta (video game series) would say.
And here is a human bomb being guided by voice through the streets of Ngor, to music which, at times, is reminiscent of those noises heard when, with your controller, you try to locate yourself in the Gta San Andreas map. Thus the background of the artist who touched the field of games is felt, in the narration of “Zero” by Jean-Luc.
The first Rican will meet a compatriot. The two Yankees must collaborate, despite their difference in temperament. Otherwise, detonation, end of mission.
In this feature film, there is zero restraint. One massacres by drumming on heads with a stone. The other explodes. The other one is pissing blood. One does not hesitate to draw his blade. Punches? Of course. Fun fact: a certain Kader Gadji is properly bent in one of these beautiful scenes of war choreography in the film.
It all looks very violent. But this violence is not just artistic ostentation. “Your deaths serve a great purpose,” reads dialogue in one scene. What is certain is that we do not die for nothing in “Zero”.
A political background color
In this thriller, we also know how to die beautifully: under a tree, in a white boubou, surrounded by children, in the courtyard of a school, under a bright sun, like… You’d have to go see the film to find out like who!
In “Zero”, we also say strong things. Such as this sermon: “Stand up and breathe. Because death is not the end when your life has meaning. What you are about to accomplish will set off a fire so great that it will shake the order of things.”
All the dead then respond to a broad, very broad project, the ins and outs of which only the voice seems to know. The end of the feature film even suggests that we could have, after “Zero”, a One, and a Two, which could be played out in Paris.
One wonders if the voice does not want to create a global earthquake by orchestrating human bomb runs and meticulously thought-out explosions…
Note that the two trapped bodies are attributed to the death of the leaders of the West African Liberation Front (Flao), a very popular pro-democracy party in the country and beyond.
“Media around the world received anonymous drone footage showing two men, identified as Americans, at the scene of the attacks just before each explosion. These two men were also identified during the execution of a professor…”
Reporting everything is a spoiler… Back to the action.
Ouakam (near the Mosque of the Divinity, it gives an idea of what we don’t want to tell in full to the curious), elsewhere and elsewhere in Dakar, it explodes. The population is groaning. The police are patrolling. A helicopter flies overhead and adds anxiety to the tension.
All this palette of images and sounds helped to reproduce a very American film atmosphere in Dakar. The film is mainly managed, technically, by Senegalese hands. Pride.
The Senegalese faces who carried it, like Roger Sallah (in the role of Onaye), saw it as an artistically “challenging” project, which was filmed under the restrictive conditions of Covid-19. Return to the message.
Medina, Daniel drags his two Americans. With them is Emmanuel, a ladoum (Jean-Luc is free to do what he wants, right?).
Medina, which Western Wikipedia presents in a certain way, but which Daniel narrates differently. For the latter, Medina is the center from which the Statue of Liberty radiates.
“I want to teach to enlighten and liberate, not to dominate,” says the man with glasses, who does not seem to appreciate this other country on the other side of the Atlantic.
A country? No, rather “an illness” to the detriment of the world.
Moussa ECK
