Rome after nightfall becomes the ground for a race against an attack in Zeros and Ones, a 2021 thriller directed by Abel Ferrara, with Ethan Hawke at the top of the cast list. The feature runs 85 minutes, sits in the thriller and war genres, and is a co-production of Germany, Italy and the United States.
What is Zeros and Ones about?
A soldier reaches the Italian capital with one urgent assignment: prevent a bombing that appears to be only hours from happening. The mission carries a personal complication. His brother, a rebel who is now held in custody, may know something that could stop the plot, and the soldier has heard nothing about him. Moving through unlit streets and near-empty districts, he goes from one uneasy meeting to the next, gathering pieces of what he needs as the deadline approaches. The intended target is the Vatican, which sets the scale of what is at stake.
About the cast
Ethan Hawke is billed first. The credited ensemble continues with Cristina Chiriac, Phil Neilson, Anna Ferrara, Salvatore Ruocco, Valerio Mastandrea, Babak Karimi and Dounia Sichov. The size and spread of the cast list match the film's multinational production, which brought German, Italian and American partners together on a single project under Ferrara's direction.
Context & significance
Zeros and Ones pairs two genre traditions. As a thriller, it builds its tension around a deadline and a lone protagonist working against the clock. As a war film, it places that personal mission in a military context, with terrorism and soldiering forming the backdrop of the story rather than a subject for debate. Rome supplies the geography, and the Vatican, one of the most recognisable places in the world, is the point of danger. The title uses the vocabulary of binary code, the zeros and ones that underlie digital systems. The film was made as a co-production between Germany, Italy and the United States and keeps to a compact length of 85 minutes. Political and military elements serve only as the setting in which the narrative unfolds.
Watching Zeros and Ones on Ktime
Zeros and Ones is available to stream on K-Time in its original language with Persian subtitles. A Persian dub is not listed for this title. Reading this page is free; to watch, log in with a K-Time account. The Farsi interface, built for Persian-speaking viewers worldwide, makes browsing simple.