Lumumba, la mort du prophète

Raoul Peck’s powerful and deeply personal documentary dives into the life and tragic assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Blending archival footage, historical testimony, and Peck’s own reflections on his childhood experiences in the Congo, the film reconstructs Lumumba’s meteoric rise as a symbol of Pan-African resistance and his violent fall amid Cold War power struggles. Peck confronts the absence of images and the dominance of imperial narratives to expose the forces that conspired to silence Lumumba’s vision of unity and self-determination.

Rather than merely recount events, Death of a Prophet meditates on memory, colonial legacy, and the politics of historical representation. Peck juxtaposes archival material with shots of contemporary Europe, unsettling the viewer and urging them to question official histories and the erasure of Black and African voices from the global narrative. (Bethan Hughes)