King Leopold's Ghost
Documentary (108 min.)

King Leopold's Ghost, narrated by Don Cheadle, Alfre Woodard and James Cromwell, is a 108-minute epic documentary based on the award-winning book of the same name by Adam Hochschild now published in 13 languages, about the personal ownership and inconceivably brutal plundering of the Congo (DRC), one of the richest countries in Africa, by Leopold II of Belgium. This resulted in the deaths of at least ten million people, confirmed by population experts. The carnage continues today by means of concessions, granted by the king, which became multinational corporations run by greedy criminals, backed by greedy nations. Many of these multinationals have been declared illegal by the United Nations and by provoking rebel rampages, have caused the starvation, rapes and deaths of a further 4-5 million people. The pillage shows no sign of stopping. A story richer than any novelist could invent, King Leopold's Ghost is the horrifying account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions and the succeeding leaders - strongmen - who patterned themselves after the king who ravaged this rich and gloriously beautiful nation. It is also the exciting account of a handful of travelers, young idealists and missionaries, who defied the oppressors and created the twentieth century's first great human rights movement, soon lost in the politics of forgetting.

The film brings us to the present day and shows us the voracious 'ghosts' of Leopold, merciless scandals which the Belgian people are only now reluctantly addressing.