Lumumba appears in Alliance Francaise

The cinematic version of true story of heroic leader of the first independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba will be screened on March 20, Tuesday at 3.00 pm and March 21, Wednesday at 6.30 pm at Alliance Francaise, Barnes Place, Colombo-7.

Directed by Raoul Peck the internationally awarded 'Lumumba' recreates the story of political leader Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first prime minister who helped lead his country to independence from Belgium in the late 1950s.

The 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…"

Made in 2000 film set about the months before and after Congo (Kinshasa) achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960 and Eriq Ebouaney stars as Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo, whose tenure in office lasted two months until he was driven from office. The film is a co production of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti.

In this film the director Raoul Peck renders an emotional and tautly woven account of the mail clerk and beer salesman with a flair for oratory and an uncompromising belief in the capacity of his homeland to build a prosperous nation independent of its former Belgium overlords. Lumumba emerges here as the heroic sacrificial lamb dubiously portrayed by the international media and led to slaughter by commercial and political interests in Belgium, the United States, the international community, and Lumumba's own administration; a true story of political intrigue and murder where political entities, captains of commerce, and the military dovetail in their quest for economic and political hegemony.

The film premiered at the Cannes Festival on May 2000, and played various film festivals as well as having commercial releases in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada. The film grossed $684,000 in the United States. The film in French will be screened with English subtitles.