Lumumba (film)

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Lumumba is a 2000 film directed by Raoul Peck centred around Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960. Raoul Peck's film is a coproduction of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti. Due to political unrest in the DRC at the time of filming, the movie was shot in Zimbabwe and Beira, Mozambique.

1 Plot
2 Release
3 Controversy
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot is based on the final months of Patrice Lumumba (played by Eriq Ebouaney) the first Prime Minister of the Congo, whose tenure in office lasted two months until he was driven from office. Joseph Kasa Vubu (Maka Kotto) is sworn in alongside Lumumba as the first president of the country, and together they attempt to prevent the Congo succumbing to seccession and anarchy. The film concludes with Joseph Mobutu (Alex Descas) seizing power with, as the film implies, the support of the United States.

[edit] Release

The film premiered at the Cannes Festival on May 14, 2000, and played various film festivals as well as having commercial releases in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada. The film grossed $684,000 in the United States.^[1] It also aired on HBO.^[2]

[edit] Controversy

The film generated some controversy in 2002 when Frank Carlucci, a former American government official and policy advisor, persuaded HBO to delete a reference to him during the airing of the film. The scene in question involves a group of Belgian and Congolese officials deciding whether to kill Lumumba. Carlucci is asked for input, and he mumbles that the US government does not involve itself in the internal affairs of other countries. At the time, Carlucci was the second secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Congo. He denies playing any role in the death of Lumumba, saying "The scene is tendentious, false, libelous; it never happened and it is a cheap shot." According to one source, the scene was deleted from the version of the film that aired on HBO.^[3] Another source says that the scene was not deleted but the word "Carlucci" was bleeped in the dialogue and the name masked in the credits.^[4]