Archive Watch
Poster for The Zulu's Heart (1908)

The Zulu's Heart (1908)

1908 · Silent film · 8 min · dir. D.W. Griffith

  • Action
Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

The Zulu chief of the Amatabele tribe has an only daughter who, at the age of four years, dies of fever, and in the opening scene of this Biograph story we find him burying her. Scarcely has the poor bereft father laid the little one in the ground, when the war cry is heard resounding in the hills. There is an uprising and the chief is summoned to action. Tearing himself from the grave of his little girl he arms himself with his assegai and oxhide shield and is soon at the head of his band of savages, with sinister designs on the Boers. The Boers themselves have become active, and scouts have been sent out to warn those nomadic South Africans who might be on the road. One family, comprising a Boer, his wife and a four-year-old girl, are, however, trapped, and despite extreme measures to elude the merciless black brutes, are soon overtaken. Finding escape hopeless, the Boer leaps from his wagon, and sending his wife and child into the woods, seizes his rifle, in the vain hope of holding the savages at bay while the woman and child seek a place of safety. There is a shower of assegais, one of which pierces the poor fellow, dropping him into the road. Up rush the prancing, jibbing, gibbering barbarians. Finding the man dead, they rush on to find the others. The distracted woman hides the girl in a niche in the rooks, while she goes to find some avenue of escape, but she is at once apprehended and taken by the band to their camp, their chief remaining behind. The baby now comes…

Synopsis from OMDb

Details

Director
D.W. Griffith
Writer
D.W. Griffith
Cinematography
Billy Bitzer
Studio
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Released
1908-10-06
Running time
8 minutes
Language
English
Collection
Silent Hall of Fame, Silent Films, Feature Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

Cast & crew

More like this