Zola is the film inspired by a wild Twitter thread that went viral in 2015.
That year, Twitter thread by user @_zolarmoon published a string of posts that detailed an extraordinary story, described in a Rolling Stone article as “the greatest stripper saga ever tweeted”.
“You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It’s kind of long, but it’s full of suspense,” said the original tweet that launched the thread, widely regarded as the first example of what is now a popular story-telling device on the social media site.
It went on to tell the saga of A’Ziah-Monae “Zola” King, a Detroit waitress and dancer who embarked on a bizarre and highly eventful road trip with a woman she’d met just hours before.
After agreeing to take the trip to Florida for what the woman, later introduced as Jessica (Stefani in the film), promised would be a well-paid dancing gig, King gets caught up into one dodgy situation after another, involving pimps, sugar daddies and handguns.
If you’re interested in reading the original (NSFW) thread, you’re in luck. It’s all saved on a Imgur page which you can find here.
The film is out in the UK on 6 August.
