在这部卢蒙巴剧情/传记/历史/战争片中,這部電影所呈現的，是一段曾經被壓抑近四十年的非洲殖民血淚史︰一九六零年六月三十日，非洲剛果獨立之日，脫離比利時近八十年殖民；翌年一月十七日，帶領剛果走向獨立的民族英雄盧蒙巴遭刺殺。
就在這段殖民與獨立的臨介期，盧蒙巴與剛果的命運緊緊扣連。電影主要圍繞盧蒙巴的經歷，由最初只是一名賣啤酒的知客，靠著出色的演說，堅定的國族精神，成為獨立運動領頭人，最終更在獨立後的民選政府擔任總理。可是， 名義上的獨立與真正的獨立總有段距離，盧蒙巴的總理生涯亦只有八十一天。面對比利時政府、叛軍、本地權貴所形成的反動力量，盧蒙巴早有視死如歸的準備，直至死前一刻，也不顯一絲軟弱。
The true story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the formerly vilified and later redeemed leader of the independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Using newly discovered historical evidence, Haitian-born and later Congo-raised writer and director Raoul Peck renders an emotional and tautly woven account of the mail clerk and beer salesman with a flair for oratory and an uncompromising belief in the capacity of his homeland to build a prosperous nation independent of its former Belgium overlords. Lumumba emerges here as the heroic sacrificial lamb dubiously portrayed by the international media and led to slaughter by commercial and political interests in Belgium, the United States, the international community, and Lumumba's own administration; a true story of political intrigue and murder where political entities, captains of commerce, and the military dovetail in their quest for economic and political hegemony.
