''Lumumba, la mort du prophète'' (''Lumumba, the death of the prophet'') is a 1990 documentary film by Haitian director

Raoul Peck Raoul Peck (born 9 September 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films. He is known for using historical, political, and personal characters to tackle and recount societal issues and historical ...

. It covers the death of

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

, the first prime minister of Zaire, now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The film was critically acclaimed and won a number of awards. In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the

2021 Cannes Film Festival The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after t ...

Synopsis

The film is a creative documentary where biography and history, stories and archives create a frame around the figure of Lumumba, his political assassination, media and memory. It is a unique opportunity to examine, 30 years later, the life and legend of Lumumba. The documentary is narrated by the director, Raoul Peck, as he reconstructs a story that interweaves his own personal experiences and the circumstances surrounding the murder of Lumumba. Peck is in Belgium, and uses shots of Brussels to establish his location and contrast with the archival footage he combines to tell Lumumba's story. The film is about absence; absence of a historical figure, absence of clarity about the events surrounding his death, and absence of a true historical construct. Even a true location is absent; he cannot get to Zaire, the topic of his film, but the majority of the archival footage and photos used are from Central Africa. Even if he were able to film in Zaire, he would be faced with an absence, so no matter his location he is still "filming from afar."

Production

*Director:

*Production: Velvet Film *Scenario: Raoul Peck *Image: Philippe Ros Matthias Kälin *Sound: Eric Martin Witz Vaucher *Editing: Ailo Auguste-Judith Raoul Peck Eva Schlensag

Awards

* Amiens International Film Festival 1991 *

FESPACO The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO) is a film festival in Burkina Faso, held biennially in Ouagadougou, where the organization is based. It ...

(

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's n ...

) 1993 *Real Festival (Paris) 1992 *Vues d'Afrique (

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

) 1992 *

Fribourg International Film Festival The Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) is an annual film festival in Fribourg, Switzerland. It is focused on selected films from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Grand Prize is the main award of the Fribourg International Film Festival ...

1992

References

External links

* *
Lumumba: la mort du Prophete
' -

California Newsreel California Newsreel, was founded in 1968 as the San Francisco branch of the national film making collective Newsreel. It is an American non-profit, social justice film distribution and production company still based in San Francisco, California. Th ...

1990 films Democratic Republic of the Congo documentary films 1990 documentary films Films directed by Raoul Peck 1990s French-language films {{FESPACO Paul Robeson Prize, state=expanded