Noth­ing shocked the polit­i­cal left in the 1960s as much as the brutal murder of Con­golese Prime Min­is­ter Patrice Lumum­ba. He was the sym­bol­ic figure for the lib­er­a­tion of the African con­ti­nent from Euro­pean colo­nial­ism. While the USA and Bel­gium were still secret­ly plan­ning Lumum­ba’s elim­i­na­tion, the US State Depart­ment sent jazz greats such as Nina Simone and Louis Arm­strong to the Congo - a tac­ti­cal diversion? 

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT is a tes­ti­mo­ny to this per­fid­i­ous coup. Visu­al­ly and musi­cal­ly designed in the style of the iconic Blue Note jazz label, Johan Gri­mon­prez’s film draws view­ers into the mael­strom of the Cold War and the polit­i­cal power games between Europe and the USA. After exten­sive research, unpub­lished inter­views, speech­es by Lumum­ba, and musi­cal per­for­mances by Miles Davies, Miriam Makeba and many others were woven into a grip­ping narrative. 

The film won numer­ous awards at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and was nom­i­nat­ed for “Best Doc­u­men­tary” at the 2025 Oscars.