The film begins with a montage of Lumumba and his compatriots Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo being driven to their executions, cutting to their bodies being exhumed, dismembered, and burned on the orders of Mobutu Sese Seko.

The film then jumps back to the late 1950s as Lumumba has a debate with Moïse Tshombe and Godefroid Munongo, rival politicians from the ethnically-nationalist pro-Western CONAKAT party.

While using his beer sales to promote his political ideas in Leopoldville, Lumumba meets Joseph Mobutu for the first time.

While in Brussels, Lumumba first meets Joseph Kasa-Vubu (spelled Kasavubu in the film), a fellow independence-minded politician from the rival ABAKO party, who wishes to better compromise with the Belgians, who insist that their colonial rule is all that prevents tribal warfare from occurring.

At the formal recognition of independence from the king of Belgium, Lumumba's speech strikes a more combative tone than Kasavubu's, highlighting the oppression that the Congolese suffered under Belgian rule.

Then, mutinied soldiers assault a member of Lumumba's cabinet and storm the government house, demanding the removal of their white superiors.

He denies playing any role in the death of Lumumba: "The scene is tendentious, false, libelous; it never happened and it is a cheap shot.

[5] The critics' consensus of Rotten Tomatoes read "Ebouaney's fiery performance makes Lumumba compelling.

"[6] Reviewing the film in The Guardian, Alex Tunzelmann noted Peck's "commendable effort to get as close to the truth as possible, incorporating many details from historical investigator Ludo de Witte's The Assassination of Lumumba.

Writing for The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell read the film's pace as "refus[ing] to lay out Lumumba's life in traditional, corny terms by presenting a lengthy and unwieldy history lesson and then groveling for audience sympathy.

Instead Lumumba vaults through his radicalization and the track that led this former civil servant and beer salesman to leave his angry stamp on the world.