Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat


Wed 20 Nov 2.30pm      Book Now

Wed 20 Nov 7.30pm      Book Now

Duration: 150 mins
AGE Rating: PG (TBC)
Adults £10
Under 16s £5

“Plays like a dense historical text and a lively jazz concert… an invigorating piece of documentary filmmaking”: Variety
“This thrilling, galvanising essay film explores a particularly inglorious chapter in the history of the Cold War”: Screen Daily
4 stars: IMdB

One February morning in 1961, singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach crash the UN Security Council to protest the murder of prime minister Patrice Lumumba of the newly independent Congo. Sixty yelling protesters throw punches, slam their stilettos and provoke a skirmish with unprepared guards as diplomats look on in shock.

Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this forgotten episode of the Cold War, where the greatest musicians stepped onto the political stage, and downtrodden politicians lent their voices as inadvertent lead singers. This story of the undermining of African self-determination is told from the perspective of Central African Republic women’s rights activist and politician Andrée Blouin, Irish diplomat and enfant terrible Conor Cruise O’Brien, Belgian-Congolese writer In Koli Jean Bofane, and Nikita Khrushchev himself.