ZEE NTULI’S CINEMATIC SURREALISM EXPRESSES EMOTIONAL TRUTH

Lady Eleanor sat with the dynamic and insightful visual storyteller to explore further what it means to be the bridge between the tangible and the abstract. Enjoy their lively dialogue. 

Lady Eleanor: What do you see as the role and purpose of storytelling today?  

Zee: To me, storytelling is how we process being alive. It’s how we make sense of chaos. Sometimes  it’s medicine. Sometimes it’s a mirror. Sometimes it’s an escape. The best stories hold  contradiction—they comfort and confront at the same time. In a world this noisy, stories that cut  through need to feel honest. That’s the only way they stick.  

My primary objective is to infuse my work with a sense of spirituality and poetry and find the place where find the place where they meet. I'm most drawn to intimate human emotion, and I explore how to distill that in as potent a form as possible.

Lady Eleanor: You’ve said that your filmmaking is characterized by “a deep appreciation for the poetry of life in all its forms”. Tell me more about how life, and your perception  of life, inspires your work. In what way is your voice as a director an expression of your  view of the world?  

Zee: I think life is constantly offering you poetry. I’m drawn to the quiet contradictions, the stuff  beneath the surface. I grew up in a house full of art, politics, and philosophy, so I was always  encouraged to look deeper. My voice as a director is an attempt to translate that—how  complex, messy and beautiful life can be. I don’t want to escape the world through film; I want  to meet it more honestly.  

Lady Eleanor: Can you tell me one example of how the poetry within your daily life inspired your art? 

Zee:  The idea behind “The Child Inside” music video initially started a conversation I had with my ex about how our inner children would have interacted. That planted the seed and germinated the idea for the music video, which brought to life this character's inner child, placing them in the physical world with this character. 

Lady Eleanor: Your work uses elements of surrealism and a stylistic approach  to explore the complex realities of human condition. I would love to hear more about  how you use abstract visual storytelling to express tangible, deeply human emotion.  

Zee: For me, surrealism is about emotional truth. When real life feels too  blunt, abstraction lets you express the things that are harder to say out loud. I’m drawn to  visual metaphors that feel like dreams you half-remember. I use them to build atmosphere and  deepen empathy. Watching the character, you’re inside what they’re feeling.  

Lady Eleanor: One powerful example of your use of surreal storytelling to express  human emotion is your Youth Honours Board campaign Class of ‘76. As a finished work, every element of visual storytelling works in harmony, building the profound emotion of the  spot and immersing us in the protagonist’s perspective. So, I want to hear from you  more about your approach to this spot.  

Zee: That project was deeply personal. It was about honouring those who came before us— specifically the students of 1976 uprising —but also showing how their legacy lives inside us  now. I wanted the camera to feel like memory. Uncertain, sometimes fractured. The imagery  had to hold weight, but also lyricism. Every decision, blocking, light, texture—was about  emotional impact. We weren’t just telling a story. We were creating a ritual of remembrance. 

Lady Eleanor: Traversing the realms of feature, television, and  commercial filmmaking, I want to hear what you’ve noticed as the differences and  similarities between mediums. What makes directing a commercial uniquely  rewarding? What are challenges unique to the world of advertising?  

Zee: Features and series let you go deep. You get to live with the characters, build a world brick by  brick, let things breathe. Commercials are the opposite—pure compression. You’ve got  seconds to say something iconic. It’s brutal, but beautiful. But one hand washes the other. The  precision of commercial work sharpens my storytelling in longform—it teaches economy,  clarity, rhythm. And in turn, my longform work brings emotional depth and psychological  complexity into my commercial projects. That back-and-forth keeps me honest. Keeps me  sharp. 

Lady Eleanor: Your spot for Samsung “Epic Worlds” features masterful worldbuilding that draws  on cinematic tropes and genres. Each elaborate vignette is established and explored  within a stunningly short timeframe. So, further discussing how your commercial work  is different from or in conversation with your television and feature work, tell me more  about your approach to this spot specifically. How did you go about building these  cinematic story worlds for this commerical.  

Zee: We treated it like a mini feature—each  vignette with its own mood, lighting rules, framing language. We referenced sci-fi, fantasy,  Westerns… but always kept the camera human. I wanted it to feel epic, but never cold. Every  world had to serve the emotional arc: awe, discovery, joy. In terms of craft, we designed transitions to feel seamless—like moving through thoughts. It was about building genre worlds  with the elegance of a single breath. 

Lady Eleanor: As a brilliant filmic craftsman, I want to hear about how you  leverage your intuition when you’re working as a director. And, I also want to hear about how much of your craft is not about instinct but about practice and refining your  discernment, refining your craft.  

Zee: I lead with  passion, intuition, and soul—but I also build space for the whole team to do the same. Instinct  gets you to the truth fast, but instinct without refinement is chaos. So I train the muscle—watch everything, rehearse, study structure, obsess over tone. Craft turns feeling into precision. The magic happens when instinct meets rigour, and the entire team is in flow.  

Lady Eleanor: Woolworth’s “Reset” is an epic visual poem that moves into macros and micro snapshots of life–surreal visions of the cosmos, a married couple’s waltz, young twins in matching suits and pearls. Tell us more about your thinking when crafting this spot.  How did you choose the vignettes to tell this stunning story of life in a lyrical way?  

Zee: This piece is a visceral, surreal ode to detail—how much it matters, and how deeply it’s felt. We  wanted every frame to express Woolworths’ commitment to quality, not through explanation,  but through sensation. We chose each vignette based on how it could showcase the product in a way that made you feel the difference. The goal was to heighten the everyday—using scale,  rhythm, and atmosphere to make detail emotional. It’s not just beautiful for beauty’s sake. It’s  purposeful. Because when you care about the small things, people feel it.  

Lady Eleanor: What excites you about joining ELEANOR?  

Zee: What drew me to ELEANOR is the ambition. There’s real passion here—an energy that’s both bold  and refined. It’s rare to find a company that backs visionary work with this much heart, taste,  and precision. There’s a confidence in how Eleanor moves—a sense that the work matters, and  it’s being built to last. That kind of ambition is infectious. It sharpens you. I’m excited to be part  of a place where the bar is high, the vision is global, and the energy is all in. Let’s make  something unforgettable.  

Lady Eleanor: Finally, darling, what is one fact about you that audiences may be surprised to learn?  Maybe it’s a hidden talent, a niche hobby, a guilty pleasure.  

Zee: I’m ADHD and a workaholic, so hyperfocus is both my superpower and my guilty pleasure. My  job is my passion, my hobby, my obsession—sometimes I forget to eat because I’m deep in a  colour grade or reworking a transition for the hundredth time. Rest is a work in progress.