King Leopold?s Ghost, named Best Documentary at last month?s Bermuda International Film Festival, is the festival?s April Film Night selection. The film, which also won Best Documentary prizes at the Santa Barbara and Mumbai, India film festivals, will screen Tuesday April 18, at 7.30 p.m. in the Tradewinds Auditorium at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

Tickets can be purchased at www.biff.bm beginning tomorrow. This powerful documentary, based on the bestseller of the same name, brings to life a brutal chapter Congo?s history.

The central African country has been blessed with an abundance of sought-after materials: ivory, rubber, diamonds, gold, uranium and, now, coltan (used in the making of cell phones and computers).

Imperialism and exploitation, beginning with King Leopold II of Belgium in the 19th Century, ensured the Congolese paid a terrible human toll and experienced extraordinary horrors.

The film puts the spotlight on the villainous behaviour of a number of characters, such as the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Last month, BIFF?s documentary feature jurors Roger Durling (director, Santa Barbara Film Festival) and Emmanuel Itier (journalist for Book LA, Buzzine, Allocine) chose the film as the best of the eight documentaries screening in competition.

?We were impressed by the arc of the story, by how much research was behind the material - and how powerful the film is,? Mr. Durling says. ?You walk out of the film with the wind knocked out of you.?

Tickets to BIFF Film Nights are $8 for BIFF Film Club members, and $10 for non-members.