Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

12A

In 1960, sixteen newly independent African countries enter the United Nations, a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the global south. Congo becomes the arena in which the battle over the UN is fought.

As Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe at the UN-top in reaction to the neo-colonial grab of the resources of newly independent Congo, UN delegates from African Countries are blackmailed. In an incredulous twist Patrice Lumumba’s assassination unites the Afro-Asian block, demanding the UN General Assembly to vote for immediate worldwide decolonization.

“A Vibrant, Jazz-Led History Lesson on Colonial Machinations in the Congo” - IndieWire

"[The] music presents a kind of commentary on Lumumba’s struggle and defeat but, in Grimonprez’s telling, has a tragic dimension of its own" - Sam Davies, BFI