Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat film review — dizzying history of colonialism, murder and jazz in the Congo

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The musical cast of documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is stellar: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Nina Simone just some of the jazz titans whose work fills the film. And the coup? Well, that is sometimes given the polite name “Congo Crisis”. The movie is a geopolitical true-crime story, rooted in the 1961 assassination of former Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Behind the curtain it pulls back are world leaders, the CIA, MI6, revolutionaries, mercenaries, and some of the 20th century’s most transcendent musicians. The mix is as rich as you’d think, and the film often stunningly good. 

It mostly unfolds in 1960 — the “Year of Africa” in the sunny phrase of the time — as colonial power seemed to wither across the continent. But of course, the past is rarely escaped easily. Certainly not for the newly independent Republic of Congo. 

A preface serves as context. After the Conradian horror of rule by Belgium’s King Leopold II in the 19th century, uranium is discovered in the country in time to be used in the bombing of Hiroshima. Belgian director Johan Grimonprez then shuttles us forward to a high-wire point in the cold war. At the United Nations, leaders from India, Indonesia, Kenya and more speak urgently of anti-colonial futures. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev seeks to ally with the new-wave bloc. For US president Dwight Eisenhower and various private interests, all of this is clearly fraught. And in Congo, so blessed with natural resources, a fragile new republic elects the radical Lumumba.

Enter the band. Bebop drummer Max Roach leads the way. But the music is more than mere ornament. Another buzzy term in 1960 is “the cool war” — the effort to use jazz musicians as envoys for American power abroad. The tale plays counterpoint to events in Congo. 

Yet Grimonprez also channels the very spirit of jazz with a dizzying trove of archive. Historical detail is treated like musical phrasing, to be explored and expanded on before a return to the stark central melody: the murder of Lumumba. A harsher critic might like more ongoing connection between the two storylines. I just wanted more of this fiercely intelligent film, whose beat never lets up.

★★★★☆

In UK cinemas from November 15 and US cinemas now