Lumumba

Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba (Eriq Ebouaney) is introduced as he is transported by car caravan to his own January 1961 execution just several months after Belgium loosened its colonial grip on the country. A narration begins—words from the doomed man to his wife—that stitches together director Raoul Peck’s sometimes dry and skeletal, but compelling story about the stiff price of freedom and the volatility and exploitation of an entire nation. The film’s grisly bookends depict Lumumba’s exhumation, dismemberment and cremation at the hands of two uniformed Caucasians. In between, the film flashes back to Lumumba’s political career as it progresses from town square debates to backroom negotiations and compromise to streets filled with hate and bloodshed. Peck establishes a convincing time and place, but not clarity of character or consistent dramatic impact.