Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat – Dir: Johan Grimonprez (13th Floor/NZIFF Film Review)

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Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat is a dense, complex film that documents a time when the US government used jazz as weapon.

Or, more accurately, a diversion.

Its October, 1960 and Louis Armstrong is in Léopoldville, capital of the newly independent Congo. He and his All-Stars were there for a three month tour, acting as ambassadors of jazz. Little did they know they were actually pawns in a very sinister game, one in which the US government would eventually be responsible for the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister, 35-year-old Patrice Lumumba.

There’s plenty of political intrigue in this story to fill up the film’s 150 minutes. Almost too much.

Fortunately, there is a lot of great music to go along with it.

We are treated to vintage live clips of some of the greatest jazz musicians ever…Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Nina Simone and many more.

But while they are entertaining the population, behind the scenes is a whole other world of lies, deception and murder.

And why?

SoundtrackWell, uranium is involved. And power. And racism. And money.

This is a story where Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev just might be the good guy.

We see him at the UN demanding worldwide de-colonization. But did he actually bang his shoe as was widely reported?  And was he being interpreted accurately?

It seems a lack of trust in the “mainstream media” has its roots at least 60 years ago.

Back to the film in question…with so much material to cover and so many different points of view the viewer can get lost.

But take heart and stick with it, you will be rewarded at the end and come away with a clearer understanding of what went down in Africa more than 60 years ago and how it remains relevant today.

Marty Duda

Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat plays next month at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Click here for tickets and showtimes

 

 

Marty Duda
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