One of 2024’s absolute gems, this rapturous, stunningly-edited Sundance award-winning documentary sets the GOATs of American jazz against the tumultuous political history of Congo’s struggle for independence during the decolonisation phase of the Cold War. 

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I think I have just seen one of 2024’s absolute gems. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is that rapturous and utterly riveting documentary about world history—and American jazz—that you didn’t know you needed so badly. 

It’s Whiplash (2014) meets your history teacher as this Sundance award-winning work tells us all we need to know about why the world today is as such—full of brickbats and thorns caused by decades of dirty politics and neocolonialism. 

The focus is on Congo’s struggle for independence during the decolonisation phase of the Cold War.  This faraway country in the heart of Africa has been for many years a place of capitalist exploitation as forced child and adult labour continues to be critical to the mining of cobalt crucial for the lithium-ion batteries in our handphones and electric cars. 

So it is against this context that we need to watch Soundtrack as the film takes us to those tumultuous days of former Prime Minister of Congo Patrice Lumumba, who showed strength against the Belgians (their colonial masters who murdered as many as 10 million Congolese during King Leopold II’s reign), badly irked the US government and revealed the (still) perennial weakness of the UN in handling global conflicts. 

“The ballot is as powerful as the bullet.”

Power, exploitation and humiliation of others are values that many Western world leaders stand for, often in the guise of such malleable, self-serving terms as ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’. 

But Johan Grimonprez’s stunningly-edited film, comprising a tantalising selection of archival footage—and lo and behold, academic citations—shows these leaders for what they were: utter putrid buffoons. 

Now, put in the GOATs of American jazz from Duke Ellington to Louis Armstrong, to name a couple, who not only ‘contribute’ to the titular soundtrack, but became key figures amongst others who were implicated in the battle for the minds of the people, and you get a potential candidate for the most innovative and unique film of the year.

Grade: A

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Trailer: