Lumumba: La mort du prophète

The 1961 assassination of Zaire's prime minister Patrice Lumumba is the subject of this modest documentary. Raoul Peck directs this unique look at a tragic time in African history, where the one man who seemed poised to finally speak up for the black population of the Congo was brutally killed before his goal of equality could be completely achieved.

Peck, who intertwines bits of his own childhood into the mix to establish the period, uses little music to help establish the somberness of the subject. The result is a worthwhile documentary, especially to those interested in African history. Peck, who also narrates, directed the 2001 narrative film on the same subject entitled "Lumumba."

In 1992 Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck reconciles with his boyhood memories of the genesis of post-independence Belgian Congo's destruction and of the execution of its nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba. A documentary picture shot during the challenging period of the rule of Mobutu, Lumumba's executioner, and probably Africa's most notorious dictator. This movie accurately recounts Lumumba's origins, his efforts, the challenges he faced and his betrayal. Most of all it reveals Lumumba's tragic destiny, that of a mere Bantu who unfortunately sought too much for his people. Drawn from his evidently deep emotional ties with the then Zaire, the director tells the story of an African holocaust and of the omnipresent invisible hand of the West: "Holocaust! The sole unit of measurement of the human race…" Now the prophet's phantom visits the streets and palaces of the West, haunting its past and present actors, now forever discomforted, summoning them to their inevitable judgment day.