Critics have described the film as the definitive visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph D'sir' Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) spanning three decades. It draws upon 140 hours of rare archival material found in Kinshasa, and 50 hours of interviews with those once close to Mobutu ' the man who turned against his mentor Patrice Emery Lumumba, stole his power and killed to keep it. That was the most apt definition of the man who journeyed from cook's son to military journalist, Secretary of State and then President. Maybe Lumumba should have known better than to trust the young handsome journalist he had met during negotiations for Congo's independence in 1960. Mobutu must have been elated upon learning that the CIA had seen him as a possible replacement for Lumumba. Archival footage also showed Mobutu trying hard to put on a brave face as soldiers mocked Lumumba in 1965 after a Mobutu-led coup.
His desire to be seen as a demi-god was quite fascinating. His ingenuous Information Minister put a smile on his master's face by slipping Mobutu's portrait into footage of moving clouds to create an impression of the president emerging from the sky. That image was played alongside the signature tune of evening TV newscasts and a generation of Zaireans grew up thinking Mobutu was a god.
Part Two ' An African Tragedy, covering the years from 1969 to 1988, showed Mobutu take his excesses to unprecedented levels. There were summary executions of opposition leaders, conscription of rioting university students and use of his mineral-rich country's treasury as a piggy bank.
His Information Minister narrated how Mobutu would request his Finance Minister for US$1m who would in turn request the central bank governor for US$2m after which the governor would withdraw US$3m. Mobutu, who married twin sisters after the death of his first wife Marie-Antoinette, would sleep with his cronies' wives as a way of exerting his power. But the documentary showed his softer side as a doting dad who wrote emotional letters to his children.
The other episode, The End of a Reign, shows how Mobutu's world crumbled after the end of the Cold War, the increasing pressure to open the political process to opposition and the 1996 rebellion led by Laurent Desire Kabila, Mobutu's undignified exit in 1997 and eventual death that year.
Rather than indict Mobutu, the documentary instead reveals the man through film and the testimony of knowledgeable aides and other qualified individuals, a feather in director Michel's cap. ' monitor.
