It’s the most expensive record ever sold — and almost no one has even heard it. 

Wu-Tang Clan’s seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, was recorded in secret over six years, sealed in an ornate silver case, and first sold at a 2015 auction for a reported $2 million, under terms barring any commercial release until 2103. 

In the years since, the record — and the story of how it came to be — has become the stuff of legend for hip-hop fans. Now, a new documentary on the album’s unlikely origins and controversial reception sets out to tell that story. After making its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable, from Academy Award–winning filmmaker Joanna Natasegara, will arrive on Netflix Oct. 16. 

The film follows Tarik Azzougarh — a Dutch-Moroccan Wu-Tang superfan performing as Cilvaringz — who talks his way into Wu-Tang Clan's inner circle and becomes the driving force behind the record at the center of the saga. What the MC and Wu-Tang set out to make was less an album than a provocation: a single, inimitable work of art conceived as a rebuke to a streaming era that had reduced music to disposable content — and built with full knowledge that it would court global controversy. Driving the project were two very different impulses: an appetite for a grand, potentially divisive gesture, and Wu-Tang Clan’s refusal to make anything less than a masterpiece. 

The documentary marks Natasegara’s (The White Helmets, The Edge of Democracy) feature directorial debut. Abigail Anketell-Jones, Lauren Dark, and Vanessa Kirby produce.

Executive producers include The RZA, Joe Gebbia, Jason Ropell, and Abazar Khayami; David Kimbangi, Farhana Bhula, and Ollie Madden for Film4; and Trevor Burgess, Gary Hess, and James Costa for Bird Street Productions. 

“For the last five years, making this film has been a labor of love and discovery,” Natasegara says. “Initially I was inspired by a teenhood love of Wu-Tang and a story about the secret album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin too intriguing to miss. In the making, I discovered so much more about why Tarik, myself, and so many of us idolize them. They stand for so much that is so needed right now — community, talent, tenacity, innovation, and love. I'm so thrilled audiences will get to spend time in this world I've loved so much.”

Chloë Lambourne and Chris Dickens edited the film. 

The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable is a Netflix Documentary in association with Studio Gebbia, Film4, 36 Cinema, Sony Music Vision; an Aluna Entertainment and Violet Films production.  

Stay tuned for more updates on the documentary ahead of its October streaming premiere.