Senegal Archives – CULTURE MIX

April 27, 2025

by Carla Hay

Cam McHarg and Hus Miller in “Zero” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Zero” (2025)

Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot

Some language in French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Dakar, Sengal, the action film “Zero” features a predominantly African group of people (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two men, who have opposite personalities and who are strangers to each other, wake up to find out that they have bombs strapped to their chests, and they are forced to complete certain tasks in less than 10 hours, or else the bombs will be detonated.

Culture Audience: “Zero” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching nonsensical action films with irritating characters.

Pictured seated in center: Cam McHarg and Hus Miller in “Zero” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Zero” is the title of this incoherent action film, but the word “zero” could also describe the entertainment value of this dreadful dud. This “race against time” movie (about two men with bombs strapped to their chests) has idiotic scenes and bad acting. A movie with this concept can work well if at least one of the victims in peril is someone who is easy to root for, but almost everyone in “Zero” is unlikable and obnoxious.

Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot (who co-wrote the “Zero” screenplay with “Zero” co-star Hus Miller), “Zero” takes place during a 24-hour period in Dakar, Senegal, where “Zero” was filmed on location. “Zero” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of Beyond Fest. Although the pacing of the film is frenetic, what’s actually shown in the movie soon becomes tedious in this one-note flop.

“Zero” begins by showing an unnamed American businessman (played by Miller, who is one of the producers of “Zero”) waking up in a sweat on a small bus in Dakar. (There are only about 10 people on the bus.) In the movie’s end credits, this character is identified as One because he is the first person in the movie to be shown with a bombed strapped to his chest.

When he wakes up, he asks, “Where am I? I was supposed to be taken to the Radisson Blu from the airport.” He doesn’t know how he got on the bus. All he remembers is getting on a a plane. A young woman (played by Moran Rosenblatt), whose name is later revealed to be India, suddenly appears next to him and hands him a cell phone. She says that an unidentified man gave her $300 to give the phone to One.

Soon after One gets this phone, he finds the bomb strapped to his chest. It looks like an utterly ridiculous scenario because something as heavy as a bomb strapped to a chest should be felt and noticed right away. Needless to say, when One sees the bomb strapped to his chest, it causes him and the people around him to panic.

The movie’s mastermind villain (whose name is never revealed in the movie but is voiced in a menacing tone by Willem Dafoe) then calls One and tells him to run. In the movie’s end credits, this villain is identfied only as the Voice on the Phone. The character known only as One frantically runs outside. And when it becomes known he has a bomb strapped to himself, police are quickly notified, and he is chased by police through the streets. He manages to escape and hide.

But the nightmare isn’t over for One. The Voice on the Phone tells One that the bomb has a ticking time clock that is counting down to when the bomb will detonate. One has less than 10 hours to complete a series of tasks before the time clock reaches zero. The tasks involve stealing certain things from various criminals in a convoluted cat-and-mouse game. If he tries to get help or ignores the villain’s orders, the villain threatens to set off the bomb. The Voice on the Phone says that the phone can only receive calls.

And how does the Voice on the Phone know what One is doing this entire time? The Voice on the Phone says that he is using drones to watch One’s every move when he ges outside. There are also hidden cameras on the bomb. It’s an utterly stupid concept, but the movie depends entirely on this concept in order for the strapped-to-bomb victims to do what the Voice on the Phone wants.

About an hour after he goes on this race against time, One finds out that another unnamed American man is experiencing the exact same thing: waking up to a ticking time bomb tied to his chest and being ordered to complete a series of tasks before the bomb clock goes to zero. In the movie’s end credits, this second man is called Two (played by Cam McHarg, also known as Cameron McHarg), who is an even more mysterious (in other words, underdeveloped) character than One.

The Voice on the Phone forces One and Two to work together. And it should come as no surprise that One and Two have opposite personalities and clash with each other. One is hyper and neurotic. Two is stoic and inscrutable. The entire time that they work with each other, One and Two don’t even tell each other their names.

One only reveals small tidbits of information about himself during the entire movie. He mentions that he’s a rich businessman whose specialty is hiding funds for clients. He also had a love affair with a Senegalese woman 18 years ago when he was in Senegal on a business trip.

The only background information revealed about Two is that he is a military veteran of the Afghanistan War. One (who is the more talkative person in this unlikely duo) tries to be friendly to Two, but Two rudely brushes off any attempts by One to have an amicable connection to him. Even though One is a chatterbox, most of what he says is meaningless and annoying.

And why were One and Two chosen for this bizarre and deadly crime? The Voice on the Phone says it’s because One represents the wealth of the United States, while Two represents the violence of the United States. By the end of this convluted and silly movie, this motive has no real relevance.

During this race against time, the two bomb-burdened men encounter some uninteresting and one-dimensional criminals. Onaye (played by Roger Sallah) is the main crime boss who causes problems for them. There are nefarious characters with names like Missile (played by Samba Mbodj), Cherif (played by Auguste Bruno Derneville), Daniel (played by Gary Dourdan, who is one of the producers of “Zero”), and Nzana (played by Annabelle Lengronne), who is nicknamed the Bomb Queen.

Chase scenes, fights, shoot-outs and explosions happen, but they are filmed with very little style and just look as messy as the plot. “Zero” might have worked better if some of the movie was amusing. But most of the attempted comedy is limp and mindless. A few surprise “reveals” at the end of the movie are underwhelming. By the end of “Zero,” the only bomb that you might think about for the movie is how “Zero” such a turnoff, it’s a surefire cinematic bomb with audiences.

Well Go USA released “Zero” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 11, 2025.

September 21, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Saloum”

Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot

French and Wolof with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2003 in Senegal and briefly in Guinea-Bissau and Gambia, the horror film “Saloum” features a predominantly African cast (with a few Latinos and white people) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: Three Sengalese mercenaries for hire are tasked with transporting a Mexican drug dealer to Dakar, but they end up in a camp in the Saloum Delta, where they encounter mysterious and sinister wind monsters.

Culture Audience: “Saloum” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful horror movies that explore issues of fallouts from civil wars and exploitation of children.

Yann Gael and Evelyne Ily Juhen in “Saloum” (Photo courtesy of Lacme Studios)

The horror movie “Saloum” artfully poses this question: “What’s scarier: monsters on the outside or personal demons on the inside?” During this intensely suspenseful story, three African mercenaries for hire have to confront this question, as a trip to Senegal to transport a Mexican drug dealer turns into a living nightmare. “Saloum” had its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Jean Luc Herbulot, “Saloum” takes place in 2003, and begins with an Atlantic Ocean scenery in the African country of Guinea-Bissau. A woman says in a voiceover: “They say revenge is like a river. And our actions are the dugouts guided by the current, whose bottom is reached when we drown.” It’s revealed at the end of the movie who said these words, since these words are repeated in the movie’s last scene.

But most of the movie follows three Sengalese mercenaries who call themselves Bangui’s Hyenas. Chaka (played by Yann Gael), who is in his mid-30s, is the group leader and is the most fearless and ruthless of this trio. Rafa (played by Roger Sallah), who is in his late 30s or early 40s, is physically the strongest. Minuit (played by Mentor Ba), who is in his 60s, is the most spiritually minded and has a visually striking appearance with long white dreadlocks for his hairstyle.

The first time that viewers see this renegade trio, they are rampaging through Guinea-Bissau, where there’s chaos on the streets. According to a caption on screen: “The military declares a coup d’état. Their pledge to restore order looks more like bloodshed. First in their crosshairs is the international drug trade. Bad news for the pushers, unless you have a military plan.”

The mercenaries who call themselves Bangui’s Hyenas find several dead or dying people on the streets. Minuit (which means “midnight” in French) has a mysterious powder that he blows in people’s faces to render them unconscious. The three mercenaries burst into a building, where they emerge with several gold bricks and have captured a human as bounty.

The bounty is a Mexican drug dealer named Felix (played by Renaud Farah), who doesn’t talk much in this story because he spends about half of his screen time passed out from the powder blown in his face by Minuit. Rafa says a drug cartel is paying “a million” to bring Felix back alive. Felix insists that they take him to Dakara, the capital of Senegal.

But on the private plane ride in a small aircraft, something goes terribly wrong: The plane is shot at, and the bullets have penetrated the gas tank. The plane runs out of fuel while over Gambia. They are forced to make an emergency landing in the Saloum region of Senegal. It’s mostly a desert area.

Rafa is suspicious about who was shooting at the plane, and he wonders if they might have been set up to make this emergency landing. Chaka isn’t as skeptical because he doesn’t think that the drug cartel would risk this type of double-cross when the cartel wants Felix back alive. As a precaution, Chaka and Rafa bury their gold bricks near certain trees in the desert, while Minuit blows the powder in Felix face so he’ll lose consciousness and won’t see where the gold is being buried.

The down side to Felix being unconscious for a certain period of time is that he has to be carried through the desert. The four men, with Felix awake, eventually find a boat to use, and they end up in Baobub Camp, an isolated holiday gathering area in the coastal region of Sine-Saloum. The camp is so remote that the nearest village is 10 kilometers (about six miles) away.

These four interlopers try to pretend to be innocent tourists who are just passing through the area, in order to fit in with the other camp dwellers. They use aliases to hide their identities. Chaka says his name is Cheikh, Rafa calls himself Rufin, Minuit is now known as Maudou, and Felix uses the fake name Felipe. But it isn’t long before these criminals expose how dangerous they can be.

The camp has a friendly host named Omar (played by Bruno Henry), who tells these new visitors: “Saloum is a natural sanctuary. It’s our job to preserve it.” The four guests are invited to a group dinner, where they get to know the other dwellers of the camp.

A woman in her 20s named Awa (played by Evelyne Ily Juhen) immediately stands out because she’s the only deaf and mute person in the group. She can communicate by sign language, which only a few people in the camp know. Awa is no pushover. When Rafa makes rude suggestive remarks to her, she scowls and gives him the middle finger.

One of the people at the camp notices that Chaka has gold dust on his hands. He fabricates a story about how he works in a gold mine. Chaka also lies and says that “Felipe” is a contact for South American investors who are interested in the gold. As time goes on, Minuit suspects that Chaka is being dishonest about other things, because he notices that Chaka has been acting as if his nerves are on edge ever since they arrived at the camp.

In a private conversation between Minuit and Rafa, Minuit mentions his suspicions that Chaka might be hiding something from them. It’s implied during the story that Minuit can communicate with spirits or has a psychic side to him. At the very least, he’s the most intuitive member of this mercenary group. And he’s right: Chaka is hiding a big secret, which is eventually revealed in the movie.

Chaka tells Omar and the rest of the camp dwellers that the four men in Chaka’s group will eventually go to the Senegal city of Kedougou in three days. However, those plans go into awry when monsters suddenly descend on the camp. The best way to describe these creatures is that they look like swirling dust devils with black mop-like fur, like a Puli dog. And since “Saloum” is a horror movie, not everyone makes it out alive.

The terrified camp dwellers find out that these monsters can be killed with guns. But there’s something else that’s life-threatening: If the humans’ ears aren’t covered, they hear a distinct and dangerous sound from the monsters that causes humans to eventually get pustule infections on their bodies and they cough up blood. Headphones are used to block out this noise. Awa doesn’t need the headphones because she’s deaf.

“Saloum” isn’t the type of horror movie that doesn’t explain why these monsters suddenly arrive to plague the camp. There’s a clear cause-and-effect that conjured up the arrival of these sinister spirits. As the humans fight to stay alive, people who previously didn’t care for each other have to form alliances to help each other, while other people are left to fend for themselves.

All of the cast members are perfectly fine in their roles. However, the characters with the most intriguing backstories are Chaka and Awa, who are both trying in their own ways to heal from emotional pain. Awa knows the pain of being isolated because of her disability, while Chaka knows the pain of being isolated because of his dark secret. It’s eventually revealed that Chaka, who seems arrogant and fearless on the outside, is a mess of insecurities on the inside.

The monsters signify what can happen when evil intentions are unresolved and allowed to fester. “Saloum” is also a disturbing story about the fallout of war. This movie is not for people who are overly sensitive to seeing life’s atrocities, but it’s a riveting depiction of how sins of the past can haunt people in the present.

UPDATE: IFC Films/IFC Midnight will release “Saloum” in select U.S. cinemas on September 2, 2022. Shudder will premiere the movie on September 8, 2022.

Tag: Senegal

Review: ‘Zero’ (2025), starring Hus Miller, Cam McHarg, Gary Dourdan, Roger Sallah, Moran Rosenblatt and the voice of Willem Dafoe

Review: ‘Saloum,’ starring Yann Gael, Roger Sallah, Mentor Ba, Bruno Henry, Evelyne Ily Juhen and Renaud Farah