''La légion saute sur Kolwezi'', also known as ''Operation Leopard'', is a French

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

directed by

Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...

and filmed in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. The script is based on the true story of the

Battle of Kolwezi The Battle of Kolwezi was an airborne operation by French and Belgian airborne forces that took place in May 1978 in Zaire during the Shaba II invasion of Zaire by the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo (FLNC). It aimed at rescuing E ...

that happened in 1978. It was diligently described in a book of the same name by former

1st Foreign Parachute Regiment The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (french: 1er Régiment Etranger de Parachutistes, 1er REP) was an airborne regiment of the Foreign Legion in the French Army which dated its origins to 1948. The regiment fought in the First Indochina War as th ...

Captain Pierre Sergent. He published his book in 1979, and the film came out in 1980. Coutard shot the film in a documentary style.

Plot

The film is based on true events. In 1978, approximately 3,000 heavily armed fighters from Katanga crossed the border to the

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

and marched into

Kolwezi Kolwezi or Kolwesi is the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, west of Likasi. It is home to an airport and a railway to Lubumbashi. Just outside of Kolwezi there is the static inverter plant of ...

, a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

centre for

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

. They took 3,000 civilians as

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...

s. Within a few days, between 90 and 280 hostages were killed. The rebels appeared to be unpredictable and are reported to have threatened to annihilate all civilians.

Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...

, Zaire's head of state, urged Belgium, France and the United States to help. France sent the Foreign Legion's

2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment The 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (french: 2e Régiment étranger de parachutistes, 2e REP) is the only airborne regiment of the Foreign Legion in the French Army. It is one of the four infantry regiments of the 11th Parachute Brigade and part o ...

, which were flown from

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

to Kolwezi. Following their arrival, they secured the perimeter, in co-operation with Belgian soldiers from Zaire, and then started to evacuate the civilians. Within two days more than 2,000 Europeans and about 3,000 African citizens were saved. The film strives to depict the events in a dramatised form, concentrating on the Europeans' plight.

Production

The late

Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...

had filmed scenes on location for the film, but her death caused her to be replaced by another French American actress,

Mimsy Farmer Merle "Mimsy" Farmer (born February 28, 1945) is an American actress, artist and sculptor. She began her career appearing in several Hollywood studio films, such as ''Spencer's Mountain'' (1963) and ''Bus Riley's Back in Town'' (1965), followed b ...

, who reshot Seberg's scenes.

Cast

Bruno Cremer Bruno Jean Marie Cremer (6 October 1929 – 7 August 2010) was a French actor best known for portraying Jules Maigret on French television, from 1991 to 2005. Origins Bruno Cremer was born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, in the eastern suburbs ...

: Pierre Delbart *

Jacques Perrin Jacques Perrin (born Jacques André Simonet; 13 July 1941 – 21 April 2022) was a French actor and film producer. He was occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet. Early life Jacques André Simonet was born on the Boulevard Port-Royal in P ...

:Ambassador Berthier *

Laurent Malet Laurent Marie Guespin-Malet (born 3 September 1955, in Bayonne) is a French actor, and the twin brother of actor Pierre Malet. Life Malet's stage debut came in ''La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu'' as Troilus alongside Claude Jade in 1975. In 1 ...

: Phillipe Denrémont *

Pierre Vaneck Pierre Vaneck (born Pierre Auguste Van Hecke; 15 April 1931 – 31 January 2010) was a French actor. During his career, he won a Molière Award in 1988 and received a César Award nomination in 2009. Biography Son of a Belgian army officer, Pi ...

: Colonel Grasser *

: Annie Devrindt *

Giuliano Gemma Giuliano Gemma (2 September 1938 – 1 October 2013) was an Italian actor. He is best known internationally for his work in Spaghetti Westerns, particularly for his performances as the title character in Duccio Tessari's ''A Pistol for Ringo'' (1 ...

: Adjudant Fédérico *

Robert Etcheverry Robert Etcheverry (1937-2007) was a French actor. He may be mainly known in Britain as the hero of ''The Flashing Blade''. He was married to Bérangère Vattier for 20 years which resulted a daughter. His younger brother was the handball pla ...

: Colonel Dubourg *

Jean-Claude Bouillon Jean-Claude Bouillon (27 December 1941 – 31 July 2017) was a French actor. He appeared in more than eighty films from 1966 until 2015. Filmography References Footnotes Sources * External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouillon, Jean-Clau ...

: Maurois

References

Sources

''This article incorporates information from the French Wikipedia.''

External links

* * * (Original French version) {{Authority control 1980 films 1980s war drama films Films about hostage takings Films set in 1978 1980s French-language films French war drama films Cold War films Films set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Films shot in French Guiana War films based on actual events Films about the French Foreign Legion 1980s French films