Fifty years after his assassination, Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo, is back to haunt Belgium. Through commemorations, encounters and a return visit, a top-ranking Belgian civil servant who was in Elisabethville on that tragic day of 17 January 1961 attempts to exorcise the ghosts of the past. To the sound of St John Passion by J.S. Bach, Spectres plunges us into one of the blackest days of the Belgian Congo’s decolonisation. This feature-length film by artist Sven Augustijnen exposes the fine line separating legitimation and historiography and the traumatic question of responsibility and debt. The artist-filmmaker is present at the screening to introduce and discuss the film. Regional Premiere. 2011.

Sven Augustijnen studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. His work concentrates on the boundaries between fiction and reality, using a hybrid of genres to disorienting effect. His films have been included in exhibitions and festivals in Athens, Basel, San Sebastián, Rotterdam, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Vilnius, among others. 

Curated by AV Festival as part of the Postcolonial Cinema Weekend. Part of AV Festival 14: Extraction, www.avfestival.co.uk

£5/£3.50. Tickets available on the door

Postcolonial Cinema Weekend Pass: £30 / £20. The pass includes all screenings on Sat 8 and Sun 9 March only. Subject to availability. BUY PASS

Sight & Sound are media partner for AV Festival 14: Extraction