The Cruelest Day

ZULU meets JAZZ provides an opportunity to learn the history of Jazz music in the townships of Durban, a link between the music and the social movement, "a long walk toward freedom", which brought an end to Apartheid.

For John Cuttin it all started with the first sip of the wine of her life. A "Marzemino", a typical wine of the province of Trento, quoted by Lorenzo Da Ponte in his libretto for "Don Giovanni" by Mozart. The instant he tasted the blood-red drop of nectar John felt a sort of pleasant and mysterious explosion of the senses, and from that moment on, his nature is transformed. In just three years, from shy bank clerk and faithful husband became director, tombeur de femmes and the most revered and respected expert on wine in Italy. Just as he had predicted the enigmatic "Professor" who had convinced him to taste his first glass of wine. The only event that the "Professor" with his accent and his piercing blue eyes, had not predicted was that he would soon be charged with the murder of his wife Adele. While being put under pressure by the Commissioner Sanfelice, John is to reflect on the last three years of his life, dominated by a single and mad passion: wine.

For personal and humanitarian reasons, Edoardo, a Ligurian sea captain, agrees to run a shipment of arms to Bosnian rebels for a shady Russian in Toulon who calls himself Riffaud. Edoardo's lover Clara wants him to quit the sea and Riffaud's wife warns Edoardo not to trust her husband, but Edoardo takes the job anyway. Sailing up the Adriatic, the crew threatens mutiny when they learn they must dock in a war zone. Once in port, little goes as Riffaud promised, and Edoardo must travel with a translator to the rebels' mountain stronghold to get payment for the crew. The war is all around them as Clara waits at home and the translator begs passage to Italy.

2006: Evo Morales, first indigenous President is elected in Bolivia after the 2003 dramatic events following the fall of the President Sanchez de Lozada (exiled in the U.S. since then). The socialist revolution enters in its crucial stage. But dealing with power carries a burden of temptations and pathologies. In four years of shooting between Bolivia and the US this film focus on the difficult path of this unique historical opportunity. The film ends with the recent TIPNIS dramatic indigenous protest which creates an historical circle.