Killing Heat

Killing Heat (released in Sweden as Gräset sjunger) is a 1981 film based on Doris Lessing's 1950 novel The Grass Is Singing. It stars Karen Black and John Thaw and was filmed in Zambia and Sweden. The film was released in Zimbabwe as The Grass is Singing. Apart from the change of the title, possibly to pander to the US market for violence, the urban life depicted in the film would not have existed in Livingstone in the 1960s, or the 1940s for that matter. The film's interiors were reportedly filmed in Sweden, whereas the exteriors were shot in Zambia. The film deals with the issues of colonialism, the white man's role in Africa, and the relationships between the races and genders. The cultural differences between the races also play a cryptic part in the storyline - some aspects of which will be opaque to viewers without local knowledge. Possibly the film expects viewers to be familiar with the novel. There may be an actual case which inspired the novel.