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Lumumba (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 55
Fresh: 46
Rotten:9
Average Rating: 7/10
Consensus: Ebouaney's fiery performance makes Lumumba compelling.
Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2001 Limited
Synopsis:
LUMUMBA is a gripping political thriller which tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Called "the Elvis Presley of African politics," and "the politico of the bush"...
LUMUMBA is a gripping political thriller which tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Called "the Elvis Presley of African politics," and "the politico of the bush" by journalists of his day, the brilliant and charismatic Lumumba rose rapidly to the office of Prime Minister when Belgium conceded the Congo's independence in June 1960.
Lumumba's vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies: the Belgian authorities, who wanted a much more paternal role in their former colony's affairs; and the CIA, who supported Lumumba's former friend Joseph Mobutu in order to protect U. S. business interests in Congo's vast resources and their upper hand in the Cold War power balance. The architects behind Lumumba's brutal death in 1961, a mere nine months after becoming the country's first prime minister, recently became known and are accurately dramatized in fictional form for the first time in LUMUMBA.
Shot in Zimbabwe and Belgium as civil war raged in Lumumba's birthplace, LUMUMBA recreates the shocking events behind the birth of the country that became Zaire and is now known again as Congo. The recent assassination of Congolese president Laurent Kabila refocused the world's attention on the area's bloody history, civil wars and economic decline.
Starring: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Maka Kotto, Théophile Moussa Sowié
Starring: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Maka Kotto, Théophile Moussa Sowié, Dieudonné Kabongo Bashila, Pascal Nzonzi, André Debaar, Cheik Doukouré, Oumar Diop Makena, Mariam Kaba, Rudi Delhem
Director: Raoul Peck
Director: Raoul Peck
Screenwriter: Raoul Peck, Pascal Bonitzer
Composer: Jean-Claude Petit
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
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Reviews for Lumumba
One day, when Ebouaney is a huge star, people will look back at this film and say 'That's what did it.'
Peck, who assayed Lumumba's life in a 1991 documentary, now paces the doomed man's story like the genuine thriller it is.
The story of the Congo and its struggle for independence from Belgium is a bloody and torrid one, but Lumumba doesn't really imbue the tale with much spirit.
Lumumba overcomes some minor shortcomings and becomes an important and gripping feature.
Bites off way more than it can chew, it is often artlessly made, and it assumes that we know more than most of us do about the Congolese Nationalist Movement.
At the heart of the movie is Ebouaney's performance as Lumumba, every bit as intense as Denzel Washington's as Malcolm X.
Earnestly but amateurishly acted, the movie feels more like a play with the actors exaggerating their gestures so that even those in the cheap seats won't miss anything.
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