Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War.

Cast

Patrice Lumumba

as Self (archive footage)

Louis Armstrong

as Self (archive footage)

Nikita Khrushchev

as Self (archive footage)

Dizzy Gillespie

as Self (archive footage)

Andrée Blouin

as Self (archive footage)

Abbey Lincoln

as Self (archive footage)

Max Roach

as Self (archive footage)

Malcolm X

as Self (archive footage)

Nina Simone

as Self (archive footage)

John Coltrane

as Self (archive footage)

Reviews

CinemaSerf

This documentary is a serious testament to the archivist's art as it pieces together an impressive array of imagery of the great and the good of American Jazz and combines that with some intimate actuality of the turbulence ongoing in the Congo as it strived for independence. Why might anyone care a...

Brent Marchant

Perhaps the most important objective of a documentary is to shed light on a subject and make it comprehensible and insightful for viewers, especially when it involves little-known material. However, when it comes to writer-director Johan Grimonprez’s latest offering, that goal is sorely compromised ...

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