- The upcoming election - by the end of 2016 - may determine the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After 15 years in power, president Kabila is no longer allowed to compete for election. However, the regime and the kleptocratic elite want to avoid the loss of power at all costs. This film documents the political situation prior to the elections and shows the ambivalent connections of government, UNO, development aid, mineral deposits and civil war. For over a decade only a view filmmakers dared to do such a comprehensive documentation about this country. Pictures of the local living situation are rare since the country is one of the most isolated and chaotic countries in the world. Writer and Director Dietmar Klumpp was investigating for this project over two years - six month of it in the Congo - and has won for his efforts the Bavarian TV Award 2016.
- The Horror of Congo - Chaos in the heart of Africa
The isolated inner life of a failed state as big as Western Europe
This film shows the challenges that the head of the UN mission in Congo, Martin Kobler, has to face. He struggles to warrant the 15th extension of the mandate in front of the Security Council. One of his largest problems is the tough cooperation with the Congolese regime, which amongst other things sabotages the peace efforts in the civil war area. The regimes aim is to cause chaos for its maintenance of power. The ongoing war in east Congo is one of the worst tragedies of our times. For over 20 years, the war has been causing millions of deaths and horrendous turnouts. For the first time in the history of the United Nations, a mission has the right to fight. The commander of the Blue Berets, Force Commander Santos Cruz, and his intervention brigade are allowed to act offensively. Despite all this, the most expensive and largest UN mission in the world is stuck and is even contributing in creating such an enormous amount of chaos.
One of the reasons for this man-made insanity is the countrys abundant wealth of important natural resources for digital technology such as mobile phones and computers. The global greed for mineral resources is fuel for the war and finances rebels and corrupt soldiers. Uwe Näher is member the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources and tries to make the mining more transparent and trackable. A tough task, since most of the mines are working with artisanal mining. Relying on pure physical strength, the miners dig for raw materials that the market longs for such as gold, which is then traded illegally in Dubai. Uwe Nähers work, which is financed by the German Department for International Development, has just begun. His work is not all about altruism, but also about the security of resource supply for our industry since Congo will soon gain importance in the matter of mineral resources.
This documentation also takes a critical look at the development cooperation since Congo is the largest recipient country for German help in Africa. The Central African country receives close to a quarter of a Billion Euros annually (directly and indirectly). This is important enough for the German development aid minister Müller to visit Kinshasa for a few hours. The shortness of his visit is characteristic for the misguided cooperation.
As of this year, the mood is heating up. Just before the film started shooting, riots came up because the government wanted to change the constitution so that Kabila could have a third term of office. The regime knocked down the protest violently and blocked the internet. Our Congolese boom operator Tshoper is used to this kind of arbitrariness in his everyday life since his friends were arrested by the intelligence agency while filming in Kinshasa and are now held captive with no contact to the rest of the world. Before we returned to the capital, Tshoper also received calls from the intelligence agency. One of his friends was set free before our filming ended and was able to talk to us about his hard days in prison. The other friend has been in prison for more than one year.
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