The province of Katanga, located in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is one of the richest regions in the world. It produces copper and cobalt, but also uranium and other strategic minerals. Yet the people of Katanga continue to live in extreme poverty, while multinationals and mafias from all over the world move in at a rapid pace through wars, rebellions and recent political stabilization.
The old mines, dug by the Belgians at the beginning of the 20th century, and which constituted the powerful Union Minière du Haut Katanga during the colonial period, are being rehabilitated. They were almost abandoned after three decades of predation and mismanagement following their nationalization by President Mobutu in 1967.
Today, new mines are being dug all over the province to exploit as quickly as possible these minerals which are essential for the technological development of Western countries and Asia. Most of the minerals from this new Eldorado are smuggled out of the country, mainly to China, which has a crucial shortage of raw materials.
This film, through the portrait of key characters of the new industrial revolution in Katanga, will show over a long period of time and several shooting periods, how the large multinational companies are waging a merciless war through recapitalizations and equity investments. It will also follow the path of artisanal diggers threatened to disappear because of industrialization.
Politicians, captains of industry, engineers, new settlers, artisanal diggers, salaried workers will be the main characters of this parable on globalization which will take the form of an economic-political thriller against a background of social violence. The archives of the Belgian colonial past will allow us to better understand the roots and historical foundations of this province whose misfortune was to be too rich, and which was so often in the headlines, from the Hiroshima bombs to the assassination of Lumumba.