Film Forum

From the Congo to Harlem and back again, Johan Grimonprez’s kinetic, urgent documentary delivers the politics of decolonization in jazz form, replete with virtuosic archival riffs, historical text in the form of Blue Note album covers, and musical performances by jazz legends (Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone) who in the ‘60s doubled as cultural ambassadors to Africa. Their roles as unknowing decoys in the CIA’s plot to assassinate Congo’s prime minister Patrice Lumumba threads through this deeply researched, densely textured tapestry — which scrambles the simplistic good guys/bad guys narrative, foregrounds powerful women behind the revolution (Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and activist/chief advisor to Lumumba, Andrée Blouin), and sounds a call to clear-eyed interrogation of Western powers’ murderous collusions in the guise of liberal values.

Presented with support from The Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

2024     150 MIN.     BELGIUM / FRANCE / NETHERLANDS     KINO LORBER
IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Reviews

CRITIC’S PICK. “A great documentary shouldn’t merely be informative, or even tell a good story; it should also be a movie, harnessing every tool at the filmmaker’s disposal. In making SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT, the director Johan Grimonprez used every instrument cinema affords. His documentary is rhythmic and propulsive, with reverberating sound and images juxtaposed against one another to lend more meaning. The result, in a word, is marvelous…[It’s] a furious and elliptical film, a piece of true history structured like a spider web and drenched in real urgency.”
– Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

“A sprawling, swinging work of 20th-century history…Dazzling musical energy, complex narrative sweep and [a] dizzying cast of characters…a heroic plunge into the archives…[Grimonprez] makes use of a vast array of old footage, stringing it together with a blend of spontaneity and internal logic reminiscent of a great jazz solo…The director makes gripping use of the memoir of Andrée Blouin, a woman born in French-colonial Africa who became a close advisor to Lumumba and at certain points seemed to have lived episodes lifted from a spy novel, smuggling documents across international borders and narrowly escaping assassination attempts.”
– Zachary Barnes, The Wall Street Journal

“A case study of decolonization, neo-imperialism, cultural exploitation, and political murder…I don’t think I’ve seen a better movie-movie all year.”
– J. Hoberman, Film Comment

“Thrilling, galvanizing… crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring… Political history has never felt so energising and dynamically alive as it does here.”
– Wendy Ide, Screen International

“Bravura…intertwines jazz, history, and the taste of a spy thriller…a mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable, in part delivered through fact-based title cards designed like renowned covers of Blue Note albums, with their freewheeling beats and riffs echoing into today with urgent purpose.”
– Tomris Laffy, Harper’s Bazaar

“A vibrant, jazz-led history lesson on colonial machinations in the Congo… Cutting between home movies, official texts, historical footage, and Lumumba’s speeches [the film] uses an endless rhythm of rumba and jazz to weave this all together… Editor Rik Chaubet and sound designer Ranko Pauković seamlessly evoke joy and tension (and everything in between) through their combination of visuals and sound...a stirring rally that’s uniquely cinematic in the way so many elements come together so precisely and yet still feels so organic as well.”
– David Opie, IndieWire

“Slickly edited to the rhythms of the music featured, the film always remains gripping, its presentation of information easy to digest…an eye-opener.”
– Marya E. Gates, RogerEbert.com