Overview
- The Disciple, which Netflix acquired Wednesday, premieres on the streamer on Oct. 16, 2026.
- The documentary follows Dutch‑Moroccan producer Tarik Azzougarh, known as Cilvaringz, and the six‑year, secret recording process that produced a single 31‑track physical copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
- The album was auctioned to Martin Shkreli in 2015 for a reported $2 million, was seized by U.S. authorities after his conviction, and later sold again in a transaction that reporting describes as opaque.
- Director Joanna Natasegara spent five years making the film, which premiered at Sundance and features RZA as an executive producer and contributor while focusing on community, creativity and the intention behind making music deliberately scarce.
- Netflix’s global release will expose the story and its legal and cultural questions to a wide audience and is likely to renew public attention to how contracts, collectors and technology shape access to music.