Mobutu, roi du Zaïre
Is this worth seeing? How is the footage and does it show atrocity? Is it 'fair', or is it 2 1/2 hours of showing how terrible or how great this man was?
EDIT: I guess my next question is, "how do I find this anyway?"
Much like The Battle of Chile, this is going to be tough. The New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Library doesn't have a copy which is strange considering this documentary isn't even 10 years old.
Mobutu, King of Zaire (Thierry Michel, 1999)
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aox
- Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
- Location: nYc
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nyasa
- Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:05 am
- Location: UK
I saw this a couple of years ago, and highly recommend it. African despot documentaries seem to be a bit of sub-genre, and I'd rank this above the other two I've seen (General Idi Amin Dada, and Herzog's portrait of Bokassa, Echoes of a Sombre Empire).
The first big surprise is the degree of access Thierry Michel was granted to Mobutu himself. Ironically, by getting so close, the director was able to show just how isolated Mobutu became. (I remember one scene of him standing alone in the grounds of one of his palaces that actually stirs surprising feelings of sympathy towards him.)
The other surprise is that there is much more to Mobutu than just the ludicrous kleptocrat in the leopardskin pillbox hat that we have come to regard him as. There's definitely more to this man than that bumbling buffoon Amin, or the tyrannical Bokassa.
The film tells a complex story of Western puppetmasters, cold war tensions, and palace intrigue - despite its length, it never drags.
As to where to get it - I rented the Region 2 release online from Blockbuster in UK. I'm not sure if it ever surfaced on Region 1.
The first big surprise is the degree of access Thierry Michel was granted to Mobutu himself. Ironically, by getting so close, the director was able to show just how isolated Mobutu became. (I remember one scene of him standing alone in the grounds of one of his palaces that actually stirs surprising feelings of sympathy towards him.)
The other surprise is that there is much more to Mobutu than just the ludicrous kleptocrat in the leopardskin pillbox hat that we have come to regard him as. There's definitely more to this man than that bumbling buffoon Amin, or the tyrannical Bokassa.
The film tells a complex story of Western puppetmasters, cold war tensions, and palace intrigue - despite its length, it never drags.
As to where to get it - I rented the Region 2 release online from Blockbuster in UK. I'm not sure if it ever surfaced on Region 1.
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gelich
- Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:33 am
Re: Mobutu, King of Zaire (Thierry Michel, 1999)
I haven't seen the Mobutu film, but it can be ordered here:aox wrote:Mobutu, roi du Zaïre
Is this worth seeing? How is the footage and does it show atrocity? Is it 'fair', or is it 2 1/2 hours of showing how terrible or how great this man was?
EDIT: I guess my next question is, "how do I find this anyway?"
Much like The Battle of Chile, this is going to be tough. The New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Library doesn't have a copy which is strange considering this documentary isn't even 10 years old.
http://www.alapage.com/-/Selection/DVDV ... ppel=GOOGL
On the same page is a film I have seen: "Congo River." I highly recommend this amazing documentary.