Written and directed by Roger Avary, the film follows a safecracker brought to Paris for a violent, spiraling heist that unfolds over a single anarchic day. It became known for its mix of grimy realism and surreal, drug-soaked chaos, and for being one of the decade’s first American indie films to lean this heavily into European crime-film attitude.
The movie also earned attention for Avary’s connection to Quentin Tarantino — the two co-wrote early projects together — which helped Killing Zoe find an audience on home video. The film won the Grand Prize at the 1994 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan, where it became something of a cult favorite thanks to its mix of art-house grit and heist-film momentum. Eric Stoltz also produced the film while starring in it, and Julie Delpy’s performance remains one of its unexpected highlights.
Written and directed by Roger Avary, the film follows a safecracker brought to Paris for a violent, spiraling heist that unfolds over a single anarchic day. It became known for its mix of grimy realism and surreal, drug-soaked chaos, and for being one of the decade’s first American indie films to lean this heavily into European crime-film attitude.
The movie also earned attention for Avary’s connection to Quentin Tarantino — the two co-wrote early projects together — which helped Killing Zoe find an audience on home video. The film won the Grand Prize at the 1994 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan, where it became something of a cult favorite thanks to its mix of art-house grit and heist-film momentum. Eric Stoltz also produced the film while starring in it, and Julie Delpy’s performance remains one of its unexpected highlights.
