Synopsis

2025 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature.

United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.

Trailer

Film Details

Director: Johan Grimonprez
Studio: Kino Lorber
Running Time: 150 minutes
Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands
Release Year: 2024
Rated: Unrated

Reviews

“It might manifest as a straightforward historical documentary, but the fascinating, hypnotic Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat unfolds into something much deeper — and more sinister.” – Aaron Tyme, Time Out