Jérôme Salle’s Cape Town-set thriller Zulu, starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, will close the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, running May 15-26.

Adapted from South African writer Caryl Férey’s eponymous novel, the picture unfolds in Cape Town in a post-apartheid South Africa still dogged by the system’s legacy.

Whitaker and Bloom play two Cape Town police officers investigating the macabre murder of the daughter of a former rugby champion.

Co-scripted by Julien Rappeneau, Zulu was shot on location in South Africa. It is produced by Richard Grandpierre of Paris-based production house Eskwad. French Pathé and M6 Films co-produced alongside Cape Town-based Lobster Tree. Pathé International is handling international distribution.

Whitaker won best male actor at Cannes in 1988 for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s Charlie Parker biopic Bird.

Salle’s past pictures include The Burma Conspiracy and he is currently developing a biopic about sea conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau entitled The Odyssey.

The Cannes Film Festival will open on May 15 with Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.

The full list of films in Official Selection will be announced on April 18 at the festival’s traditional news conference.

Topics