Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

Lumumba revives the tradition of Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers" and Costa-Gavras' "Z" and "State of Siege." In substance and excitement, it joins their ranks.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

What matters now, what Lumumba conveys, is the urgent chaos of revolution.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

Genuine thriller -- with one crisis hurtling after another, heightened by hauntingly brief moments of peace.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Mr. Peck's gambit works, and the result is a great film and a great performance.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Lumumba is potent stuff. Complex, powerful, intensely dramatic.

Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov

As fluid and intellectually stimulating as the man himself, a tragic, heartfelt take on an event some 40 years old that feels as fresh as yesterday's Times.

New Times (L.A.) by Andy Klein

From the start, a comprehensible, if necessarily simplified, sense of an extremely complicated moment in history.

Variety by Deborah Young

An impassioned, at times thrilling re-creation of the birth of the country that became Zaire and is now known as Congo again.

Mr. Showbiz by Kevin Maynard

There's nothing more incendiary than the reopening of a forgotten chapter of history --nothing more incendiary than telling the truth.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Although the narration is addressed to his wife, we learn little about her, his family or his personal life; he is used primarily as a guide through the milestones of the Congo's brief two-month experiment with democracy.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold

Writer/director Raoul Peck never gives us enough intimate moments to let us feel we know the man on a personal level, and he doesn't have the narrative skill to economize the necessary exposition or steer a clear storyline.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

The film does succeed in making the story universal, giving us the drama as well as the history, the fire as well as cool examination. It's a movie that haunts you afterward.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

Gives a white-knuckled, you-are-there account of a politician's dilemma, one whose repercussions are still felt in Africa.

Boston Globe by Jay Carr

Structural shortcomings and all -- gives a neglected giant of African independence his due.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Utterly enthralling even for viewers unfamiliar with the Congo's complicated political history.