LUMUMBA

This year President Laurent Kabila of the Congo was shot to death, the latest casualty in a tragic history of that country's internal wars and misrule. Four decades ago there were other gunshots, and another prominent victim, whose blood still stains the map of modern Africa and whose spirit continues to inspire. LUMUMBA is a grand-canvas dramatization of the public life and martyrdom of Patrice Emery Lumumba, first shown as an activist (and part-time beer salesman) in the 1950s, agitating on behalf of the Congolese National Movement for his land's independence from Belgium. On June 30, 1960, Lumumba and his supporters, like Mobutu Sese Seko, get their wish – and all hell breaks loose. The new found nation is ravaged by enduring tribal feuds, a mutinous military, separatists in Katanga, the scars of colonial genocide and the neo-imperialist meddling of France, the US and USSR, for whom the Congo is another piece in their ongoing Cold War chess match. And Lumumba an expendable pawn. Filmmaker Raoul Peck, who ealier examined Lumumba's life in documentary format, here gives the man and his heroic ideals a voice, rising phoenix-like from the early grave taht teh Central Intelligence Agency helped prepare for him. (In French with English subtitles)