Cannes

The 66th Festival de Cannes will close on 26th May with a screening of the thriller Zulu, shot entirely on location in South Africa by Jérôme Salle and adapted from the novel of the same name by Caryl Férey.

The action takes place in Cape Town, in a South Africa still overshadowed by apartheid, where destitute townships rubs shoulders with affluent neighbourhoods. Two cops on the beat, Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean by Gore Verbinski, Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland by Kevin McDonald, Ghost Dog, La Voie du Samouraï by Jim Jarmush) are caught up in a suspenseful search which combines elements of political film noir and social study.

Co-written by Julien Rappeneau, Zulu was produced by Richard Grandpierre (Eskwad), coproduced with Pathé, Lobster Tree and M6 Films and is to be distributed in France by Pathé, who will also handle the film’s international distribution. The score was composed by Alexandre Desplat.

In 1988, Forest Whitaker won Best Male Actor at Cannes for his role in Clint Eastwood’s Bird.

The 66th Festival de Cannes opens on Wednesday 15th May with Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and with Steven Spielberg as President of the Competition Jury.

The full list of films for Selection will be announced on Thursday 18th April at the traditional press conference and published online towards noon at www.festival-cannes.com

Jérôme Salle