Lumumba
Lumumba
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Synopsis

This gripping drama depicts the true story of Patrice Emery Lumumba, the first leader of an independent Congo, whose vision of a united Africa earned him loyal allies at home and powerful enemies abroad. The movie details how the U.S. government, through the C.I.A., conspired with Belgium to have Lumumba assassinated to protect business and Cold War power interests. "Mr. Peck makes no plea for crocodile tears; his ambitions are as wide and encompassing as those of his subject...[Eriq] Ebouaney's performance is a muscular assertion of willfulness" (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times). French with English Raoul Peck---France/Belgium/Germany/Haiti---2000---115 mins.

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  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
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   | JohnH#1

In 1961 I was one of a group of junior Foreign Service Offices who were briefed by a CIA officer on the Congo crisis. He let us in on a couple of dirty little secrets: the CIA was complicit in the killing or Lumumba and it had engineered Mobutu's takeover. Because he had previously admitted that the CIA had been double-crossed by many Congolese it had backed, several of us asked, "How can you trust Mobutu?" "Oh, we don't worry about him because he's a Catholic." We couldn't believe our ears. Lumumba probably was doomed anyway, but our operatives precipitated events and saddled the Congo with one of the most odious tyrants in history. And he didn't even stay a Catholic. "Lumumba" the film is a trifle hagiographical but all in all gives a pretty good rundown on the whole sorry episode.

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  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
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   | Chris#9

This is a necessary film for anyone who is interested in the African continent. Released in 2000, the cinemetography feels as though it is truly from a different era, and faithfully reproduces the time of Patrice Lumumba's Zaire. Like some other political revolutionary biographies, it is difficult not to want to deify these figures, these martyrs. Peck's style, and Eriq Ebouaney's acting however, pull you in more authentically into the political reality that Lumumba was swept up in. If nothing else, it will introduce the Belgian brand of colonial domination to a new set of viewers who otherwise would not have been exposed to it. The film does a wonderful job of straddling the line between older filmmaking genres and newer Hollywood type ventures. Overall, highly recommended.

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