lumumba : death of a profit

stills from the film starring, agreat performance by, eriq ebouaney as patrice lumumba

watch for free on youtube – if link is broken try : here

lumumba is a 2000 biographical film directed by raoul peck. a co-production of france, germany, belgium, and haiti. filmed in french, the film depicts the rise and fall of patrice lumumba, and is set in the months before and after congo-léopoldville achieved independence from belgium in june 1960. war in the democratic republic of the congo at the time of filming caused the film to be shot in zimbabwe and beira, mozambique.

CONTROVERSY : the film generated some controversy in 2002, when frank carlucci, a former american government official and protege of donald rumsfeld, persuaded HBO to delete a reference to him during the airing of the film. the scene in question involves a group of belgian and congolese officials deciding whether to kill lumumba. carlucci is asked for input, and he mumbles that the US government does not involve itself in the internal affairs of other countries. at the time, carlucci was the second secretary of the US embassy in congo. he denies playing any role in the death of llumumba: “the scene is tendentious, false, libelous; it never happened and it is a cheap shot.” the scene remains on the DVD version of the film. by dd