Special features of these DVDs: interviews with director and stars ; gallery of orginal pre-production concept art ; gallery of production photos ; essay on the history of British colonialism in Africa and the significance of the Zulu Wars ; interactive menus ; scene selection ; Dolby Digital.

Originally released as a motion picture by Trimark in 1986.

Director of photography, Alec Mills ; production design, Hans Nel ; music, Dave Pollecutt.

Robert Powell, Edward Fox, Trevor Howard, Fiona Fullerton, Christopher Lee, Henry Cele, Dudu Mkhize, Roy Dotrice, Kenneth Griffith, Gordon Jackson.

The epic story of the uniting of the Zulu tribes into a powerful new nation under the leadership of one man, set in the period of European colonial expansion.

Volume 1: Shaka Zulu opens with the tense initial contacts between British emissaries and the fearsome African king. A party led by Lieutenant Francis Farewell sets out with a mandate to reason with the proud Shakaa, bring back ivory, and sow the seeds for eventual British domination of the Zulu. But, as Shaka says, "Your colonial office has no idea what it is up against."

Volume 2: Shaka Zulu continues with the tale of Shaka's rise from outcast to king. Bitter and resentful of the way he was treated as a boy, he proves to be a ruthless and brilliant warrior, and soon becomes a general in the army of the Mtetwa king Dingiswayo. Revolutionizing the way his troopss fight, he develops the tactics and weaponry that allow his to seize the Zulu throne.

Volume 3: Shaka sets out to eliminate opposition to his rule and bend the tribes of Southern Africa to his will. Through cruel and continuous war he achieves his goal, but he must now protect his kingdom from the hatred of his defeated enemies, and the avarice and influence of the British emissaries, who are suddenly in a position of great power.

Volume 4: Tragedy follows tragedy in the powerful conclusion of Shaka Zulu. Deeply shaken by the death of his mother, Shaka plunges his people into a year-long ordeal marked by capricious cruelty and wholesale starvation. All hopes of reconciliation or settlement with the British are squandered, and Shaka seems to be leading his people to ruin until he meets his inevitable, violent fate.

Not rated.

DVD.

Audio track in English ; subtitled in English and French ; closed captioned for the hearing impaired.