A Mine of Worries in Katanga goes behind the scenes of Thierry Michel’s film Katanga Business. This report is more than a making of. It prolongs the film and opens new avenues of discovering the new El Dorado of globalisation that Katanga has become.

 

For 17 years, Thierry Michel has travelled extensively through former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This time, the Belgian documentary filmmaker filmed the mines of Katanga, a region in turmoil that has turned into a huge geopolitical Monopoly game for multinationals and mafias from all around the world because of the mining riches that its soil contains.  

 

In a country undermined by corruption, the film director had to be armed with astuteness, patience… and a sense of humour. We are taken along this eventful shooting of diggers in mining galleries, striking miners and the attempts to film Chinese companies and traffic of uranium.

 

We follow Thierry Michel as he is being banned from shooting, through the hassles of bureaucracy and in his determination to overcome all these obstacles to uncovering the economic wars, the social battles and the history of men.