LUMUMBA

Year: 2000
USA: Zeitgeist Films
Cast: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Theophile Moussa Sowie, Maka Kotto, Mariam Kaba, Dieudonne Kabongo, Pascal N'Zonzi, Andre Debaar, Cheik Doukoure, Oumar Diop Makena, Rudi Delhem, Paul Tingay
Director: Raoul Peck
Countries: France / Belgium / Germany / Haiti
Language: French / Lingala
USA: 115 mins
USA Release Date: 20 July 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 27 June 2001 (Limited Release - New York)

Synopsis

At the Berlin Conference of 1885, Europe divided up the African continent. The Congo became the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium. On June 30, 1960, a young self-taught nationalist, Patrice Lumumba, became, at age 36, the first head of government of the new independent state. He would last two months in office.

A true story, LUMUMBA is a gripping political thriller which tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Called "the politico of the bush" by journalists of his day, the brilliant and charismatic Lumumba, rose rapidly to the office of Prime Minister when Belgium conceded the Congo's independence in June, 1960.

Lumumba's vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies: the Belgian authorities, who wanted a much more paternal role in their former colony's affairs, and the CIA, who supported Lumumba's former friend Joseph Mobutu in order to protect US business interests in Congo's vast resources and their upper hand in the Cold War power balance. The architects behind Lumumba's brutal death in 1961, a mere nine months after becoming the country's first Prime Minister, recently became known and are dramatized for the first time in LUMUMBA.