Zelal est une invitation à plonger dans le monde de la psychiatrie et de la folie, en Égypte. Le film part à la rencontre de ces patients ordinaires, enfermés dans des hôpitaux par la société égyptienne, et offre davantage qu’un voyage au cœur de leur monde obscur. Les hôpitaux finissent par être le seul endroit que les patients envisagent, pas parce qu’ils sont réellement « fous » mais parce qu’ils craignent le monde extérieur. Le film oblige ainsi les spectateurs à remettre en question leurs préjugés et leurs interprétations, nous rappelant que, dans une société qui ne supporte pas la différence, la liberté est précaire.
À Londres, dans un futur indéterminé, un informaticien du nom de Qohen Leth (interprété par Christoph Waltz) vit dans une chapelle réaménagée en lieu d'habitation. Ne sortant de chez lui que pour aller travailler, il essaie tant bien que mal de se couper d'un monde bruyant à la joie agressive. Son supérieur, Management, lui confie le projet secret appelé « Zero Theorem » visant à déterminer si l'existence a un sens …
The story revolves around five characters: a fortysomething, the "Man," who has memories from the "years of cholera;" an alcoholic woman, Odetti, who goes by the pseudonym of "Madame Raspberry;" a Senegalese striper named Mandali; the "Little Guy," a guitar player and music lover; and Elsa, the protagonist's ex-girlfriend who is now a barwoman. The characters meet in order to fulfill their longstanding dream: leaving the city for an exotic island on a journey of no return. Thus they get involved with the dark world of the night.
The director studied the transformation of social values using the example of a group of five friends who meet after a long separation and share with each other the details of their difficult lives. The film became the symbol of the 1950s generation and reflected his personal views on the problem of alienation in the modern world. The film was shot in a surreal way with a predilection for the aesthetics of the Marquis de Sade. In it, for the first time in Nikolaidis' filmography, one can see the characteristic elements of film noir which became part and parcel of Nikolaidis' unique approach in the majority of the films that followed. The film follows four men who had been adolescents in the 1950s and are now in their forties. A fifth person, a woman, who has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals due to unspecified disorders, also appears. Efi Papazachariou, who wrote an article about it in World Film Locations: Athens, stated that it is "one of the most unconventional Greek films.
Vinod (Mohanlal) becomes mentally ill after his girlfriend Anitha (Lizy) dies because of an electric short circuiting accident during a rock concert. Vinod is admitted into an institution managed by Dr. Ravindran (M. G. Soman).