Feature film · 2000
Lumumba
A film by Raoul Peck
Directed by Raoul Peck · written by Raoul Peck and Pascal Bonitzer
Lumumba (2000)
Opening at the end — with Belgian policemen destroying the bodies — the film follows Lumumba from beer salesman to Prime Minister to prisoner, narrated in his own voice from beyond the grave. Eriq Ebouaney plays Lumumba with a restless, charismatic energy; the 30 June speech is staged in full.
A French, Belgian, German and Haitian co-production, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2000. War in the Congo made filming there impossible; it was shot in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Released as Ludo De Witte’s book was reopening the case in Belgium, it brought Lumumba’s story to international audiences that had known him, if at all, as a Cold War headline — and remains the most widely seen portrayal of his life.
Principal cast
- Eriq Ebouaney
- Patrice Lumumba
- Alex Descas
- Joseph-Désiré Mobutu
- Théophile Moussa Sowié
- Maurice Mpolo
- Maka Kotto
- Joseph Kasa-Vubu
- Dieudonné Kabongo
- Godefroid Munongo
- Pascal Nzonzi
- Moïse Tshombe
- Mariam Kaba
- Pauline Lumumba
