
User Score
0 votes
When the Congo became independent in 1960, clashes between rival groups ensued. White mercenaries with war experience are also involved in the conflicts. They include Germans who, under the leadership of the former Wehrmacht officer Siegfried Müller, brutally attack the black population. After the "Stern" reporter Gerd Heidemann had uncovered the machinations, the GDR filmmaker Walter Heynowski made a politically motivated documentary about Siegfried "Kongo Müller". Now Siegfried Ressel has reconstructed the story of the German mercenaries and the propaganda argument about their use.
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
DE

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

The making of Matrix Revolutions, The (2003) is briefly touched on here in this documentary. Interviews with various cast and crew members inform us how they were affected by the deaths of Gloria Foster and Aaliyah, and also delve into the making of the visual effects that takes up a lot of screen time. Written by Rhyl Donnelly