Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

• Johan Grimonprez
• 151 min
• Belgium, France, Netherlands
• 2024
• Documentary

A masterful study of the decolonization of Congo and the geopolitical power struggles behind Lumumba's assassination – and how jazz was pulled into the Cold War.

Louis Armstrong, Nikita Khrushchev, Nina Simone, and Dag Hammarskjöld all play pivotal roles in Grimonprez's monumental archival exploration of his homeland Belgium's dark history in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film centers on Lumumba's brief tenure as the country's first prime minister, as well as the final months of his life, meticulously examining how geopolitical forces from both East and West conspired for control over the newly independent nation. At the same time, with pitch-perfect rhythm, swing and feeling, the Congo Crisis is intricately linked to the jazz era of the 1950s and 60s jazz. Louis Armstrong was dispatched to Congo as a smokescreen, masking the CIA's more dubious operations in the region, while artists like Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took to the international stage, storming the UN in protest against Lumumba's assassination.

- Johan Blomqvist

• Dokumentär
• Musik
• Politik
• Kolonialism
• Makt
• Historia