Lumumba: Death of a Prophet

Set in the months before and after the Congo declared its independence from Belgium, this gripping and deeply personal political film from director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), who grew up in the Congo, depicts the rise and fall of legendary African leader and first Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba became a lightning rod of Cold War politics as his vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies in Belgium and the US. This new restoration—strikingly photographed in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Belgium as civil war raged in the Congo—mixes Peck’s reflections and home movies with archival footage and vivid re-creations of the shocking events that led to the birth of a country.

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata/L’Image Retrouvée in collaboration with Velvet Film and supervised by Raoul Peck. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.