There's a new zombie movie coming to theatres, but this isn't the sort of zombie movie that features the flesh-eating creatures George A. Romero and John Russo created in 1968. This one goes back to the voodoo roots of the zombie. The film is Bertrand Bonello's ZOMBI CHILD, and it's set to play in theatres across the United States starting this Friday.
Presented in French and Haitian with English subtitles, ZOMBI CHILD "injects history and politics into an unconventional cross-genre film." The film begins in 1962 Haiti and tells
the real-life story of Clairvius Narcisse, who falls dead on the street but is soon turned into a "zombi" when he is dug up from his grave and forced to work on a sugar-cane plantation. Shifting to present-day Paris at the Légion d'honneur boarding school, a rebellious teen named Fanny befriends Melissa, who moved to France when her parents died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. After recruiting her into a secret literary sorority, Fanny learns of Melissa's connection to Clairvius, and becomes obsessed with her new friend's past and culture, soon doing the unthinkable: seeking out her voodoo mambo aunt to solve her recent heartbreak.
Louise Labèque, Wislanda Louimat, Katiana Milfort, Macenson Bijou, Adilé David, Ninon François, Mathilde Riu, Ginite Popote, and Néhémy Pierre-Dahomey star.
ZOMBI CHILD sounds intriguing to me and it has received a lot of positive press. If you'd like to catch a theatrical screening of the movie, here's where it will be showing:
1/24: Film at Lincoln Center (NYC)
1/24: Quad Cinema (NYC)
1/24: Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago)
1/31: Alamo Drafthouse (Brooklyn; weekend shows)
2/7-9: SIFF Film Center (Seattle)
2/21: Nuart (Los Angeles)
2/21: MFA Boston
2/28: Cosford Art Cinema (Miami)
2/28: O Cinema Miami Beach
2/28: Landmark Opera Plaza (San Francisco)
2/28: Landmark Shattuck Cinema (Berkeley, CA)
2/28: Cinema Salem (MA)
3/6: The Grand Berry (Ft. Worth, TX)
3/6: Gateway Film Center (Columbus, OH)
In addition to writing and directing the film, Bonello also composed the score and produced alongside Judith Lou Lévy.
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