| La légion saute sur Kolwezi | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Raoul Coutard |
| Produced by | Gérard Beytout Georges de Beauregard |
| Written by | André-Georges Brunelin |
| Based on | La légion saute sur Kolwezi by Pierre Sergent |
| Starring | Bruno Cremer Mimsy Farmer Giuliano Gemma |
| Music by | Serge Franklin |
| Cinematography | Georges Liron |
| Editing by | Michel Lewin |
| Distributed by | BELA - FR3 Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC) |
| Release date(s) | September 1, 1980 (France)} |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
La légion saute sur Kolwezi is a French war film directed by Raoul Coutard. The script is based on true story (Battle of Kolwezi) that happened in 1978. It was diligently described in a book of the same name[1] by French officier Pierre Sergent. He published his book in 1979 and already in 1980 the film came out. Raoul Coutard shot the film in a kind of documentary style, for this is not a tale about superheros but a true story about real people.
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In 1978 a great many (approximately at least 3000) heavily armed fighters from Katange cross the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and invade Kolwezi, a mining centre for copper and cobalt. They take 3000 civilists as hostages. Within a few days between 90 and 280 hostages get killed. The rebels are unpredictable and threaten to annihilate all civilists. Congo's head of state Mobutu urges Belgium, France and the USA to help to prevent mass murder. Now the Foreign Legion comes into play. Paratroopers are flown from Corsica to Kolwezi. They secure the perimeter, team up with Belgian soldiers from Zaire and then start to evacuate the civilists. Within two days more than 2000 Europeans and about 3000 African citizens are saved.
Jean Seberg was meant to be in this film but when she died the director had only a few takes from her and decided not to use them
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This article incorporates information from the French Wikipedia.