HOLLYWOOD – For heaven’s sake could someone please release Chief Zabu.

A real estate moghul from New York wants to make a big deal which will see him realize a dream of having his name written on the side of buildings! We’ve been talking a lot about films which predicted Donald Trump and his ressistable rise. But this one you probably don’t know about. Made in 1986, but not completed until this year, Chief Zabu tells the story of Ben Sydney (the great Allen Garfield), the real estate businessman trying to make the deal of a lifetime, taking control of the Polynesian nation Tiburaku with the help of the eponymous chief and his sidekick part time comedian Zack Norman – who co-wrote and directed the film along with Neil Cohen.

The movie is a snappy, sharp satire on shady money deals and shyster hubris which despite the Eighties hair and fashions seems if anything more relevant today than then. It’d also be good to see a film in the tradition of Putney Swope and early John Sayles get an airing. It’s the kind of frenetic political commentary we’ll need a lot more of in the weeks and months and years to come. At the moment, the film is undistributed but talk is that it should be making an outing sometime next year.

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