SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A young man is sent to “La Maca,” a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named “Zama King” and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Night of the Kings Plot Summary and Synopsis
At Ivory Coast’s infamous MACA Prison, the inmates are in control and have set up their own set of rules. One of these rules states that if the Dangôro, or inmate King, becomes too ill to govern, he must take his life. The ailing Dangôro Blackbeard is pressured to commit suicide by his subordinate Lass, who seeks to become Dangôro after Blackbeard.
Hoping to postpone his death by appeasing the prisoners, Blackbeard says he will name a new Roman, a griot instructed to tell stories for the population during the upcoming red moon. A new prisoner, a thief and member of the “Microbe” gang, arrives at MACA and is assigned to Blackbeard’s cell block. Blackbeard speaks with the new arrival and chooses him as Roman.
Once the red moon rises, the prisoners gather around Roman to hear, and occasionally act out portions of, his story. Initially hesitant, Roman tells the story of the death of Zama King, the leader of the Microbes.
During a meal break, Roman is warned in secret that he must keep the story going until morning, or he will be killed. When Roman resumes his story, he tells a highly embellished tale of Zama King’s early life: After the death of his mother, Zama is raised by his father Soni, a blind beggar.
Soni becomes the advisor of a local queen after convincing her that he has mystical powers. The story is interrupted by the murder of Koby, one of Blackbeard’s confidants. After a period of mourning, Blackbeard and Half-Mad, his second-in-command, speak to each other privately. Half-Mad asks Blackbeard to name him as the next Dangôro. After Half-Mad leaves, Roman begs Blackbeard to call off the storytelling tradition. However, Blackbeard refuses and says that he wants to spill blood one last time. Afterwards, Blackbeard accepts his fate and drowns himself in a water tank.
Roman continues his story: After failing to lead the queen to victory in a war against her brother, Soni disguises himself and flees with Zama, settling in the Lawless Quarter slum of Abidjan. Following the post-election crisis and the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, Zama becomes a close ally of the new government and founds the Microbes. Later, Zama is surrounded by an angry mob and is killed via necklacing, thus ending the story.
Realizing that morning has not yet come, Roman claims that the story has a twist ending, and attempts to explain that Zama was a foundling. Half-Mad accuses Roman of stalling and prepares to kill him. However Roman is saved when a fight breaks out between Lass, Half-Mad, and their supporters.
Night of the Kings Ending
In order to prevent the brawl from escalating, prison Warden Nivaquine fires into the crowd with a handgun, killing several prisoners, including Half-Mad. In the prison courtyard, Roman watches the sun rise.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).