Hyde Park Pick: Soundtrack to a Coup d'État

I’m a programmer of African cinema, not just because I love cinema and my heritage, but also because I see African cinema as an opportunity – to educate, inspire and innovate. From these films we can of course learn about African cultures, traditions and stories that are so little shown on the big screen. And we can use these films to feel empowered and informed.  

But these films also get to break rules.  

They get to challenge us in form and technique, because of the very fact that they are underseen. Our audiences don’t have expectations. They are ready to see something new. It means the African cinema landscape can be a playground for new ideas, new styles and shapes.  

Currently, I am particularly interested in showing films that explore creative use of archive material, such as Milisuthando and Spell Reel. The sentimental and nostalgic nature of archive adds a layer of depth, a sense of memory. Precarity and mystery surrounds archive. Sometimes it's lost, rediscovered, delicate, damaged, restored. Our memories are fragile, just like film material. Films can use archives in a way that reminds us how much we still don’t know, how much there is to unearth, and how we can play with this gap, fusing it with other narratives, stories, images and sounds. 

Soundtrack to a Coup d'État is quite possibly my film of the year, purely based on this fusion of narratives. I didn’t expect to get a dramatic roller coaster of a drama, documenting the so-called liberation of Congo, with the UN as a stage, and the key characters being politicians and jazz musicians. Not only does this film give a history lesson with detail and references worthy of a dissertation piece, but its percussive editing also has the emotion of free jazz and Black liberation.  

I thought I might be too biased; this film seems to have been made specifically for me. With my sentimentality for archive, hunger for African history and revolution, and excitement for new forms and ideas. But after our staff preview screening, I was delighted to see this film's impact is universal. The rest of the day I could hear the names Khrushchev, Lumumba and Armstrong coming from front of house in passionate conversations. This film gripped us all and showed us yet another way to learn history. It is innovation at its finest. And don’t be put off by the 2h30min length – it honestly goes by in the blink of an eye, or the crack of a snare.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'État is showing at HPPH from Fri 13 Dec. You can book tickets here.