Congo, My Precious
Genres
Overview
The Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa is one of the world’s most resource-rich countries. A wide range of rare minerals can be found here in abundance, all commanding high prices in world commodity markets. Diamonds for jewellery, tantalum, tungsten and gold for electronics; uranium used in power generation and weaponry and many others. Congo has copious deposits of raw materials that are in high demand internationally but remains one of the poorest countries in the world. For our translator, Bernard Kalume Buleri, his country’s history of turmoil is very personal; like most Congolese people, he and his family fell victim to the unending mineral based power struggle. Born in the year of his country’s independence, he has lived through war and seen his homeland torn apart by violent looting and greed. His story is a damning testament, illustrating how nature’s bounty, instead of being a blessing, becomes a deadly curse.
Details
Budget
$0
Revenue
$0
Runtime
52 min
Release Date
2017-05-01
Status
Released
Original Language
English
Vote Count
2
Vote Average
4.5
0.0
Prince
A man performs the same ritual every day: he cleans his shoes, dresses up in his shiny blue suit, wears his white gloves and grey hat, and spends his time walking around Brazzaville. His presence generates an absurd apparition in the urban chaos of the city, which reflects the imaginary produced by one of the upmost icons of pop culture.
2014-01-01 | en
9.0
The Vocation
Sven Nykvist, best known as Ingmar Bergman cinematographer, made this film as a tribute to his father who was a missionary in Kongo in the early 20th century. The story of his father Gustav Natanael Nykvist is told through his own photos, letters, and films. Director & cinematographer: Sven Nykvist. Narrators in the English dubbed version: Liv Ullmann & Sean Connery. Produced by Ingmar Bergman (Cinematograph AB). Digitally restored in 2022.
1974-04-02 | sv
6.4
Africa Addio
A chronicle of the violence that occurred in much of the African continent throughout the 1960s. As many African countries were transitioning from colonial rule to other forms of government, violent political upheavals were frequent. Revolutions in Zanzibar and Kenya in which thousands were killed are shown, the violence not only political; there is also extensive footage of hunters and poachers slaughtering different types of wild animals.
1966-02-11 | it
6.6
Dark of the Sun
A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry travel through war-torn Congo across deadly terrain, battling rival armies, to steal $50 million in uncut diamonds. But infighting, sadistic rebels and a time lock jeopardize everything.
1968-02-08 | en
5.9
Enjoy Poverty
An investigation of the emotional and economic value of Africa's most lucrative export: filmed poverty. Deep in the interiors of the Congo, Dutch artist Renzo Martens single-handedly undertakes an epic journey and launches an emancipatory program that helps the poor become aware of what is their primary capital resource: Poverty. After three years of traveling through the Democratic Republic of the Congo he asks the question: "Who owns poverty?
2009-06-04 | nl
7.4
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. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on high alert. The newly independent nation faced its first coup d'état, orchestrated by Western forces and Belgium, which were reluctant to relinquish control over their resource-rich former colony. The US tried to divert attention by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the African continent. In 1961, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was brutally assassinated, silencing a key voice in the fight against colonialism; his death was facilitated by Belgian and CIA operatives. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took action, denouncing imperialism and structural racism. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev intensified his criticism of the US, highlighting the racial barriers that characterized American society.
2024-09-11 | fr
7.1
The Siege of Jadotville
Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
2016-09-19 | en
6.0
Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson
As if they were showing their film to a few friends in their home, the Johnsons describe their trip across the world, which begins in the South Pacific islands of Hawaii, Samoa, Australia, the Solomons (where they seek and find cannibals), and New Hebrides. Thence on to Africa via the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, North Africa, and the Nile River to lion country in Tanganyika. (They are briefly joined in Khartum by George Eastman and Dr. Al Kayser.) Taking a safari in the Congo, the Johnsons see animals and pygmies, and travel back to Uganda, British East Africa, and Kenya.
1930-02-01 | en
6.0
The Seven Red Berets
Deep in the African Congo, revolution rages and explosive documents have fallen into the hands of nationalist guerillas. The Red Berets are the government's only hope of retrieving papers which could change the course of the war.
1969-03-20 | it
0.0
Weapon of War: Confessions of rape in Congo
Wherever war breaks out, men with guns rape. During the decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo possibly hundreds of thousands of women and girls were brutally raped. In WEAPON OF WAR military perpetrators unveil what lies behind this brutal behavior and the strategies of rape as a war crime. An ex-rebel explains how he raped. Like for many ex-soldiers, starting a normal life again is a struggle filled with trauma. In an attempt to reconcile with his past, he decides to meets one of his victims in an attempt to obtain forgiveness. Captain Basima is working as a priest in Congo's army and confronts perpetrators of rape. He urges them to change. Just like he did.
2009-11-29 | en
5.4
Operation Leopard
In May 1978, the mining town of Kolwezi in Katanga, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Belgian Congo) is under attack from a group of communist guerillas coming from nearby Angola. The Europeans who work for the Belgian mining company and the Blacks who live in the town are taken as hostages by the invaders, who start a blood bath, shooting Europeans as well as Africans. Many of the Europeans being French, the French decide to organize a counter-attack, and to send a Regiment of Paratroopers from the Foreign Legion. The movie follows the stories of Delbart, a former non-commissioned officer, who was about to go back to France with his African wife and his child, Damrémont, who was Delbart's replacement, Bia, a Zairian doctor, and Annie, an American married to a Belgian engineer as well as Non com Legion officer Federico and the French Ambassador and the Military Attaché.
1980-01-09 | fr
7.0
Empire of Dust
Lao Yang is head of logistics of the group. He is responsible for the equipment, building materials and food (mainly chickens) to arrive in the isolated Chinese prefab camp. The Congolese government was supposed to deliver these things but so far the team hasn't received anything. With Eddy (a Congolese man who speaks Mandarin fluently) as an intermediate, Lao Yang is forced to leave the camp and deal with local Congolese entrepreneurs, because without the construction materials the road works will cease. What follows is an endless, harsh, but absurdly funny roller coaster of negotiations and misunderstandings, as Lao Yang learns about the Congolese way of making deals.
2011-10-18 | fr
0.0
Congo: A Journey to the Heart of Africa
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a vast, mineral rich country the size of Western Europe. Alastair Leithead takes an epic journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the far reaches of the Congo river to explore how history has shaped the Congo of today and uncover the lesser told stories of this beautiful, if troubled country. In the largest rainforest outside of the Amazon he comes face to face with its gorillas and hunts with pygmies, he travels into the heart of the Ebola outbreak with United Nations peacekeepers, and explores the cobalt mines which will drive our electric cars of the future.
2019-01-05 | en
6.8
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet
Documentary about African political leader Patrice Lumumba, who was Prime Minister of Zaire (now Congo) when he was assassinated in 1961.
1991-11-01 | fr
0.0
Burnt Earth
A visual travel diary on the expedition led by Brondeel in 1934. This expedition to Belgian Congo, by truck, became a testimony to the social conditions of Africans during the colonial era.
1934-01-01 | fr
10.0
The Peacekeepers
With unprecedented access to the UN Department of Peacekeeping, The Peacekeepers provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the struggle to save "a failed state" The film follows the determined and often desperate maneuvers to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). Focusing on the UN mission, the film cuts back and forth between the UN headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the "Crisis Room" as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. In the background, but often impinging on peacekeeping decisions, are the painful memory of Rwanda, the worsening crisis in Iraq, global terrorism, and American hegemony in world affairs.
2005-04-26 | en
0.0
The Enclave
Commissioned for the Irish representation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, The Enclave is an immersive, six-screen video art installation by Irish contemporary artist Richard Mosse. Partly inspired by Joseph Conrad’s modernist literary masterpiece Heart of Darkness, the visceral and moving work was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo using 16mm colour infra-red film, which captures otherwise invisible parts of the spectrum. The resulting imagery in Mosse’s work is hallucinatory and dream-like with the usual greens of jungle and forest replaced by shimmering violet. The Enclave depicts a complicated, strife-ridden place in a way that reflects its complexity, using a strategy of beauty and transfixion to combat the wider invisibility of a conflict that has claimed so many.
2013-06-11 | en
0.0
Året var 1961
1961 - the year when Swedish UN soldiers are in the crisis-ridden Congo and Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash. Swedish film's biggest hit, "Are there angels?", has its premiere with Christina Schollin in one of the roles. Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space and the Volvo P 1800 appears on the roads. Ewy Rosqvist is a rally ace and in April the regal ship Vasa is lifted up after 333 years at the bottom of Stockholm's stream. In August, the Berlin Wall is built and outside the Stockholm archipelago, Radio Nord broadcasts music and news.
2010-01-07 | sv
8.0
Lords of the Forest
Documentary about the inhabitants, both human and animal, of the Belgian Congo. Released in 1958.
1958-11-21 | fr
8.0
Hope Has A Name
In urban America, the bush of Africa, the war zone of the Congo, and in closed nations there are women who are living outside their own cultures, society, and comfort level to care for orphans, build schools, liberate addicts, feed the poor, and love the broken. These ordinary women are reaching into hopeless situations of people and creating hope.
2017-11-22 | en