Remember the Wu-Tang Clan’s secretly recorded album that was sealed in a silver case and sold for $2 million at a 2015 auction? Well, the story behind the legendary hip-hop crew’s seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, is finally being told in a new Netflix documentary.
The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable chronicles the album’s unlikely origins and controversial reception. It also traces “the decades-long journey of Dutch-Moroccan rapper and producer Cilvaringz, who transformed from the group’s most devoted fan into the unlikeliest disciple of his childhood heroes,” the synopsis reads. With RZA as his mentor, viewers follow the odyssey behind the one-of-a-kind, 31-track album and how the relentless Wu-Tang Superfan became a driving force behind its creation.
The documentary marks Joanna Natasegara’s feature directorial debut. The Academy Award winner worked alongside producers Abigail Anketell-Jones, Lauren Dark, and Vanessa Kirby.
“For the last five years, making this film has been a labor of love and discovery,” she says. “Initially, I was inspired by a teenhood love of Wu-Tang and a story about the secret album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin too intriguing to miss. In the making, I discovered so much more about why Tarik, myself, and so many of us idolize them. They stand for so much that is so needed right now — community, talent, tenacity, innovation, and love. I’m so thrilled audiences will get to spend time in this world I’ve loved so much.”
Executive producers include The RZA, Joe Gebbia, Jason Ropell, and Abazar Khayami.
“The documentary is a pure complement to the time,” The RZA says. “Joanna lived it out. She had the word become flesh all the way. That’s the same thing with the album itself. There’s very few cases where a fan actually gets to stand beside the man and add onto the man’s legacy. Here’s a guy who scraped his dollars together, came to the club, and out of all the people there, he gets pulled on stage by Ol’ Dirty Bastard. In all reality, he gets pulled into the cipher of Wu-Tang. And now his legacy is cemented.”
Catch the October 16 premiere of the Sundance Film Festival favorite, The Disciple, on Netflix.
