Frédéric Cristéa

Lumumba, return of a hero

61 years after his assassination, Patrice Lumumba returns to his country. "Congo returns to Congo" as one of his children said. Lumumba was a nationalist leader who intended to use his country's enormous wealth for the benefit of his people. He became the first Prime Minister in the history of Congo on June 30, 1960, when the country gained its independence after 80 years of Belgian colonial rule. Seven months later, he was assassinated in Katanga province with two of his best political allies: Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo. Their bodies were dissolved in sulfuric acid and only one of Patrice Lumumba's teeth remained. This "relic" was taken from Lumumba's corpse and kept in secret by a police commissioner until his death in 2000. The assassination of the nationalist and anti-colonialist leader was followed by the advent of the dictator Mobutu, who was able to remain in place until 1997, thanks to Western support.

An opera from indian ocean

In the wings of the opera "Maraina", the film combines history and oral memory, to recount in music the first contacts between the natives in the Indian Ocean Islands and the Europians. The film follows the cast's fantastic journey to the place where it all began: Fort-Dauphin, in southern Madagascar. Two differents versions of a moment in African history: one related by the French officers back in the mid-17th century, and the other one by the Malagasy people. The characters tell their own vision of a common past. There was war of course but there were also love stories between those young French soldiers and beautiful Malagasy princesses. A fascinating voyage through Madagascar today, at the heart of its beliefs.