All language subtitles for Exterminate.All.the.Brutes.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10 (2)

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♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL PECK:
This is Aby Osceola.

She is from the Seminole Nation.

Her story goes deep into
the history of this continent.

She reminds me of my mother.

But despite the resemblance,
they each come,

although through
not totally unrelated events,

from different strands
of history.

(GUNSHOT)

RAOUL:
Aby's role is played by Caisa,

a Swedish actress

of both Colombian
and Native American ancestry.

(HORSE NEIGHS)

RAOUL: It is said

that the Seminole Nation
never signed any treaty

with the United States
government.

That's why they are called
"the invincible tribe."

But for now,
it is about another story.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(OCEAN RUMBLING)

RAOUL: In that larger story,
there are three words

that summarize
the whole history of humanity:

civilization, colonization,
extermination.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: These words run forcibly
through Western world history,

the same way they drill
to the core of U.S. history.

-(ARROWS WHISTLE)
-(BISON GROWLS)

RAOUL: And it's not so much
about winners and losers,

or between conqueror
or conquered,

nor between colonist
and colonized.

The forces involved here
are less visible than gunfire,

class property,
or political crusades.

But they are no less powerful.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

RAOUL: Entire civilizations
in the Western Hemisphere

were wantonly destroyed,
setting the Western world

on a path of greed
and destruction.

For history
is the fruit of power,

and power is crucial
to the story,

which then always becomes,
at best,

a story about those who won.

And clearly,
this needs to be challenged...

(SINGING)
♪ Some guys care a lot for me ♪

♪ But my excitement
They can't fan ♪

♪ Because I still await
My primitive mate ♪

♪ We've had a date
Since the world began ♪

♪ My prehistoric man... ♪

RAOUL: ...for it is
about who we are today.

About what we have become
as a people.

And on what side
of history we are.

What side of the truth.

(SINGING) ♪ Simple and free
In the long ago... ♪

RAOUL: A certain view
of history contends

that the historical narrative
is just one fiction

among others.

It is not.

There is no such thing
as alternative facts.

(SINGING)
♪ They didn't have bebop ♪

♪ Tom-toms, tom-toms ♪

♪ They sat all day
Just a-beatin' on tom-toms ♪

♪ I really love tom-toms ♪

♪ (DRUMS BEATING) ♪

(MIMIC CHANTING
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(EXAGGERATED GROAN)

(CHANTING CONTINUES)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ ("PREHISTORIC MAN"
CONTINUES PLAYING) ♪

(SCREECHES)

(SAILOR YELPS)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(INSECTS CHIRPING)

(BIRDS TWITTERING)

This is the day we fight.

-(CHILD CRYING)
-(HORSE NEIGHS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Chieftain Yah-Ho-Cuchee,

we must leave.

We are the ones
who arrived latest here.

Kwame-Micco,

we are family now.

-You stay.
-Yes.

But family is not meant
to bring harm.

They bring harm to our nation.

Not you.

It's better we surrender.

So you and your people
can have time to run and hide.

This is our land.

The white man wants our land.

We will fight.

Together.

Or we will die together.

And it will be a great honor.

Hink-lah-mas-tchay.

All is well, then.

(HORSE SNORTS, BLOWS)

(HORSE SNORTS)

(HORSE NEIGHS)

(COUGHS)

(HORSE NEIGHS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I do not want to spill
Seminole blood,

kill Seminole children,

Seminole women.

Give us back
the American property you stole

from our good fellowmen
planters and settlers,

and I'll let you move
to the Indian Territory

the U.S. government
has provided for your people.

You call human beings
your property?

They're slaves.

You steal land.

You steal life.

You steal humans.

What kind of species are you?

-This kind.
-(GUNSHOT)

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

-(HORSES NEIGHING)
-(GUNFIRE)

(HORSE NEIGHING)

(GUNFIRE CONTINUES)

(HOOVES GALLOPING)

(CANNON BOOMS)

(GUNFIRE FADES)

♪ (PLAYFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(LAUGHTER)

RAOUL: "All Jews and Negroes
ought really to be exterminated.

We shall be victorious.

The other races will disappear
and die out,"

said the White Aryan Resistance
in 1991, in Sweden.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL:
2016, 25 years later,

a well-known Swedish
department store

wanted something new
for its Christmas catalog.

♪ (CHOIR SINGING HYMN) ♪

RAOUL:
The store wanted to pay tribute

to what Sweden is today:
a largely multicultural society.

♪ (SINGING HYMN) ♪

RAOUL:
To wear St. Lucia's white gown,

a popular
18th century tradition,

it chose a nine-year-old
dark-skinned boy.

The innocent boy
had a shy smile on his lips.

It was the smile,
more than anything else,

that was not taken well.

In Sweden, one of the most
tolerant countries in Europe,

like everywhere else
in the world,

hate is on the rise again.

-(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
-(NOTIFICATION DINGS)

(NOTIFICATION WHISTLES)

-(NOTIFICATION BEEPS)
-(KEYBOARD CLACKING)

(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DONALD TRUMP: We have people
coming into the country,

or trying to come in,
we're stopping a lot of them.

These aren't people,

these are animals.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

This is not immigration,
this is invasion.

You need to be afraid,

because they are coming
for you.

STEVE KING:
We have to do something
to increase our birth rate,

or the vacuum that's created
will be filled by people

that don't believe in our values
here in Western civilization,

and we're seeing it happen
in the Netherlands

and all across Europe,
and that's a lot about...

The white establishment
is now the minority.

(IN PORTUGUESE)

(IN ENGLISH) We wanted
to do a good impression.

SDU MEMBER: It's respectful.

♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(GUNSHOTS)

-(CAR ENGINE REVVING)
-(CROWD SCREAMING)

ALL: (CHANTING)
You will not replace us!

You will not replace us!

You will not replace us!

You will not replace us!

(CHANTING FADES)

(BIRD CALLING)

♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BARACK OBAMA: In reaffirming
the greatness of our nation,

we understand
that greatness is never a given.

It must be earned.

It is time for us to realize
that we are too great a nation

to limit ourselves
to small dreams.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
Much time has passed

since Jefferson arrived
for his inauguration.

The years
and changes accumulate.

But the themes of this day
he would know:

our nation's
grand story of courage

and its simple dream of dignity.

TRUMP: We are one nation,
and their pain is our pain.

Theirs dreams are our dreams,

and their success
will be our success.

Though we march
to the music of our time,

our mission is timeless.

TRUMP: Together,

we will make America
strong again.

We will make America
wealthy again.

We will make America
proud again.

We will make America safe again.

And, yes, together,

we will make
America great again.

-(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-Thank you. God bless you.
And God bless America.

Thank you.

God bless America.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE FADE)

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

OBAMA:
We sometimes make mistakes.

We have not been perfect.

But if you look at, uh,
the track record, as you say,

America was not born
as a colonial power.

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

RAOUL: Well, actually, it was.

America was born
as a colonial power.

And this fact
is a difficult one to admit,

for it bears the fatal capacity
to disrupt the core story

we have been told
all these years

and the very foundation
of this country.

It's not an easy story to tell.

Because the story
still continues today.

A story of the search for purity
and for a godly kingdom.

A story of survival
and violence.

A search for origin,
400 years after the voyage

that is said
to have made the nation.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: 1962,
Brooklyn, New York.

This is me in the middle.
The author.

I'm not sure
how I ended up here,

although I might have
my suspicions.

This is British explorer
Henry Morton Stanley

on the Congo river.

This is me with Henry.

My parents are working there

for the newly independent
Republic of Congo,

like a few hundred
other Haitian nationals

hired by the UN
to replace the Belgians

who had fled
their former colony.

-(FILM REEL WHIRRING)
-♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: New York, 1964.

My brother Hébert and me

on our way to public school
P.S. 138 in Brooklyn,

between Nostrand and Rogers.

First time in the snow.

My mother and my cousin
came down for the picture

before going
to their factory jobs

in the Garment District.

On our way to Congo again,

after General Mobutu's
1965 coup.

Despite his crimes,

Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku
Ngbendu Wa Za Banga

would remain a welcome guest
everywhere

for the next 30 years.

It helps when you are one
of the richest men in the world

and you control an extravagant
assortment of copper, uranium,

cobalt, diamonds, and gold.

We traveled a lot,
because of another dictator.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: But it doesn't feel
like an exile.

I am with family.

I am an immigrant
from a "shithole country,"

like he said.

♪ (QUIET PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

-(ELECTRICITY HUMS)
-(KEYBOARD CLACKING)

RAOUL: There is this one short,
simple sentence

that sums up the history
of the Western world

and the European continent.

(KEYBOARD CLACKING)

At the turn of the 20th century,

a Polish writer
named Joseph Conrad,

who often thought in French
but wrote in English,

succeeded in putting it
into words

in his novel entitled
Heart of Darkness.

This sentence, spoken by Kurtz,

the main character
of Conrad's book,

will be the last
on the civilizing task

of the white man
among the savages of Africa.

And this sentence
says nothing about Europe

as the original home
of humanism,

democracy, and welfare.

It says nothing about anything
to be rightly proud of.

It simply tells the truth
we prefer to forget.

-(PLANE ENGINES REVVING)
-(BOMBS WHISTLING)

(EXPLOSION BOOMS)

♪ ("WAR REQUIEM OP 66"
BY BENJAMIN BRITTEN PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RAOUL:
The English word, "exterminate,"

from the Latin "extermino,"

means "drive over the border
to death, banish for life."

The object of the action
is seldom a single individual,

but usually whole groups,
such as quitch grass,

rats,

or people.

The term "brutes," of course,

reduces the object
to its mere animal status.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(BIRDS CALLING)

Africans have been called beasts

ever since their very first
contact with Europeans,

who described them
as "rude and beastly."

(JUNGLE ANIMALS SCREECHING)

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL:
It is in the 17th century

that Thomas Hobbes
said to a friend,

"Some men are
of so cruel a nature

as to take a delight
in killing men

more than you should
to kill a bird."

This is Sven Lindqvist,

a man I now call a friend.

He wrote the book entitled
Exterminate All the Brutes.

This is also his story.

Sven told me...

in an Algerian town
in the desert, named Salah,

the Scottish explorer
Alexander Gordon Laing

was attacked and robbed.

He had five saber cuts
on the crown of his head

and three on the left temple.

The one on his left cheekbone
fractured his jawbone

and slit his ear.

A dreadful gash in his neck
scratched his windpipe,

and so on.

Laing was attacked
in January 1825.

But fear is timeless.

"A man may destroy everything
within himself,"

wrote Conrad.

"Love and hate and belief,
and even doubt.

But as long
as he clings to life,

-he cannot destroy fear."
-(MONKEY SCREECHES)

(GUNSHOT)

RAOUL: Fear always remains.

Perhaps in fear we seek
an increased perception of life,

a more compelling
form of existence.

I am frightened,
therefore I exist.

The more frightened I am,
the more I exist?

♪ ("I'M HAPPY
WHEN I CATCH A CARIBOU"
BY JOHN PIASTUTETE PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: There was a land named
Tsenacommacah,

which means
"densely inhabited land."

It was a powerful confederacy
of more than 30 nations

led by Wahunsonacock,

better known
as the father of Pocahontas.

On May 14th, 1607,

a hundred and four
English men and boys

landed on Tsenacommacah,

on the bank
of the Powhatan River,

and decided to establish
a settlement.

But soon enough,
it was very clear

that they lacked a supply line

and proved unable
or unwilling to grow crops

or hunt
for their own sustenance.

Military leader John Smith

threatened to kill
all the women and children

if the Powhatans would not feed
and clothe the settlers,

as well as provide them
with land and labor.

The leader
of the Powhatan Confederacy,

Wahunsonacock,
entreated the invaders.

"Why should you take by force

that from us
which you can have by love?

Why should you destroy us
who have provided you with food?

What can you get by war?

What is the cause
of your jealousy?

You see us unarmed

and willing to supply
your wants,

if you will come
in a friendly manner,

and not with swords and guns,
as to invade an enemy."

Smith's threat was carried out.

After all, he worked for
the Virginia Company of London,

a for-profit enterprise.

War against the Powhatans
started in August 1609,

and their elimination
was the order of the day.

(GUNSHOT)

(DISTANT SHOUTING)

-(HORSE NEIGHS)
-(GUNSHOT)

(GUNSHOT)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(GUNSHOTS CONTINUE)

(RAVEN CAWS)

(GRUNTS)

(COUGHS)

(GUNSHOT)

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

(GUNSHOTS CONTINUE)

(SHOUTING CONTINUES)

(RAVEN CAWING)

(GUNSHOT)

(GUNSHOT)

(GRUNTS)

(COUGHS)

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RAOUL: Sven tells me,

"You already know enough.

So do I.

It is not knowledge we lack.

What is missing

is the courage
to understand what we know

and to draw conclusions."

For we know now
when the story started.

We know now
when race, color, and blood

became institutionalized
for the first time.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

We saw it taking form
with the Crusades

when the Christian kingdoms
of Northern Spain,

together with
the church leadership

and other European monarchies,

decided to take over
Muslim-controlled trade routes

to the Far East.

♪ ("SYMPHONY NO.3"
BY GUSTAV MAHLER PLAYING) ♪

♪ (SINGING IN GERMAN) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RAOUL: The ultimate goal
of the church

and the European rulers

was never just about
winning souls to Christianity.

It was also about
gaining wealth and power

through annihilation.

(BELLS TOLLING)

RAOUL:
In 1478, the pope approved

the establishment
of the Spanish Inquisition,

which had to investigate
the cleanliness of blood

of Moorish and Jewish converts.

Clean blood
was Christian European.

Unclean blood was savage,
non-Christian.

This is the origin

of the ideology
of white supremacy.

For the first time in the world,

the concept of race
based on blood

was used as law.

(BIRDS SINGING)

White supremacy made it possible
for Europeans

to think it was acceptable

to enslave or exterminate
other peoples.

That led to the mass deportation
of Jews from Spain in 1492,

and Muslims
in the following decades.

It happened with
the forced deportation

of more than
ten million Africans

from the human motherland.

It happened to Native peoples

in what came to be called
the United States of America.

And again, in the 20th century,
without any contrition,

it happened
during the Holocaust.

(TRAIN CHUGGING, WHISTLING)

RAOUL:
The road to Auschwitz was paved

in the earliest days
of Christendom.

And this road also leads

straight to the heart
of America.

♪ (DRUMS BEATING) ♪

♪ (FANFARE) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES DISTANTLY) ♪

(CROWD CHEERING)

(CHEERING CONTINUES)

(IN GERMAN)

(GUNSHOTS)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(GUNSHOT)

RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH)
The Germans have been made

the sole scapegoats
for ideas of extermination

that are actually
a common European heritage.

There was a discussion
in Germany in the '70s

over the question,

"Is the Nazi extermination
of the Jews unique or not?"

All historical events
are unique

and not copies of each other.

But they can be compared.

There are similarities
and differences

between the extermination
of the Jews

and other mass murders.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

I have seen these images before.

They are always the same.

Everywhere, in ancient
and modern times.

The ridicule of their display.

It is their banality
that gets me every time.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

(CROWD CHEERS)

(BIRDS SINGING)

RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH)
No one points out

that during Hitler's childhood,

a major element
in the European view of mankind

was the conviction
that inferior races

were by nature
condemned to extinction.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The truly charitable attitude
of the superior races

consisted in helping them
on their way.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

All German historians
participating in this debate

seemed to look
in the same direction.

None looks to the West.

But Hitler did.

He had found his models.

♪ ("DREAMLAND" BY BOB MARLEY
& THE WAILERS PLAYING) ♪

(SINGING) ♪ There's a land
That I have heard about ♪

♪ So far across the sea ♪

♪ There's a land
That I have heard about ♪

♪ So far across the sea ♪

♪ To have you all
My dreamland ♪

♪ Would be like heaven to me ♪

♪ To have you all
My dreamland... ♪

RAOUL: Of course, one man alone
did not singlehandedly engineer

the killing of more
than six million Jews.

Hundreds of thousands
of enablers

were also there
to plan, execute,

or to simply profit from it.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: Renowned industrialist
Henry Ford gave the Nazi party

all the profit from cars
sold in Germany.

And every year,
an additional 350,000 dollars

was allocated
for Hitler's birthday.

Heil!

RAOUL: While millions of others
committed themselves

to remaining silent.

(CROWD CLAMORING)

FRITZ JULIUS KUHN:

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

FRITZ: Wait, wait.

(CROWD CHATTERING IN GERMAN)

(WOMEN LAUGHING)

RAOUL: (IN ENGLISH) The essence
of this story is fragile.

It requires renunciation
of all prejudices.

Modesty and humility
are needed here.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: Why do I bring myself
into this story?

Where do I fit in it?

As a filmmaker,

I am compelled to stay hidden
in the background.

Restrained, moderate, balanced,

judicious, neutral even.

You learn to avoid becoming
the subject of your film.

It's not about you.

Unless the story
is bigger than you.

-(WIND WHISTLING)
-(METAL CREAKING)

In that case, you go for broke.

Neutrality is not an option.

And those who seek history
with an upbeat ending,

redemption, or reconciliation,
may search in vain.

Such a conclusion
cannot be expected.

In the late 15th century,

Europeans started
to colonize the New World.

(WOOD CREAKING)

RAOUL: Crossing the Atlantic,
Columbus, an Italian,

landed on an Island
that he claimed for Spain.

In 1497, John Cabot,
also an Italian,

claimed another territory
for the king of England.

In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral,
a Portuguese,

serving his own king,
reached Brazil.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa
crossed through a piece of land

to find the Pacific.
He claimed it for Spain.

Ferdinand Magellan,
a Portuguese,

also did the same for Spain

and died on his way
around the world.

The Italian
Giovanni da Verrazzano

followed the coastline
of North America

for the king of France,

and got a bridge named
after him in New York.

(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)

RAOUL:
In 1534, Jacques Cartier

claimed another piece for France
and named it "Canada."

A few years before,
Amerigo Vespucci,

an Italian sailing for Portugal,
had proved Columbus wrong again,

in that he had not reached
the West Indies,

but what he would then call
"the New World."

As a result,
a German cartographer,

Martin Waldseemüller,

gave the name America
to the whole continent.

(HORSE NEIGHING)

From the beginning,

the extension
of the United States

from sea to shining sea

was the intention and design
of the country's founders.

Free land was the magnet

that attracted
European settlers.

This particular form
of colonialism

is called settler colonialism.

But as a system,
it requires violence.

It requires
the elimination of the Natives

and their replacement
by European settlers.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(RUMBLING)

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RAOUL:
The charge of genocide,

when applied
to the United States,

has been unacceptable
for a very long time.

But the evidence leaves
no other choice today.

From the first settlements

to the founding
of the United States,

and continuing
into the 21st century,

the elimination of the Native
is consciously,

or unconsciously,
wired into the process.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: This is a story,

not a contribution
to historical research.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RAOUL: The nature
of this historical process

is still blurred by the notion

that violence
was committed equally

by the colonized
and the colonizer.

♪ ("AMERICAN DREAM"
BY J.S. ONDARA PLAYING) ♪

(SINGING) ♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Hey... ♪

RAOUL: But people do not
hand over their land,

their resources, their children,

and their futures,
without a fight.

And that fight
is always met with violence.

(SINGING) ♪ Well, the gold
And the silver... ♪

RAOUL: In U.S. history,
everything is about the land.

Who oversaw and cultivated it,
who fished its waters,

maintained its wildlife,

who invaded and stole it.

It's about how the land
became a commodity,

"real estate,"
broken into pieces

to be bought
and sold on the market.

♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ It was just
An American dream ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ It was just... ♪

RAOUL: It is about
how African bodies

became properties
and source of labor,

and how poor white settlers
embraced white supremacy

as a substitute for land
and slaves.

The poet William Carlos Williams
wrote,

"The land! Don't you feel it?

Doesn't it make you want
to go out

and lift dead Indians tenderly
from their graves

to steal from them
some authenticity,

as if it must be clinging
even to their corpses."

Without the unpaid forced labor
of enslaved Africans,

a farmer growing cash crops
could not compete on the market.

Once in the hands of settlers,

the land itself was no longer
sacred or collective,

as it had been
for the Indigenous people.

It became private property.

A commodity
to be acquired and sold,

every man a possible king,
or at least wealthy.

Most of the founders
were also real estate men.

George Washington
made his fortune

off land speculation.

Indian land.

And then, "the land"
came to mean the country,

the flag, the military,

as in "the land of the free"
from the national anthem.

Those who died fighting
in foreign wars

were said to have sacrificed
their lives

to protect "this land"

that the old settlers
have spilled blood to acquire.

But the blood spilled
was Indigenous blood.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: This is Sven again.

He reminds me
of these old-time adventurers

who explore the human species,

whatever difficulties
and danger it involves,

whatever faraway travels
it requires.

Definitely not a white savior.

On the contrary,
he is one of these few Europeans

who dare see the beast
for what it is.

Sven is a witness.

Sven traveled the world.

Sven told me stories,

some of which I already knew.

He told me about this world,
about his world,

without cynicism,

which would not be inconceivable
at this stage of the story.

For Sven saw my world,

lived in it,

as I lived in his.

And he wrote about it,
making it palpable.

And when he delved
into the horror,

I knew what he meant
and what he went through.

I could trust him.

Our distinctive skin colors
never were an obstacle.

And that is the way
it should be.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

♪ ("TWO ON A BIKE"
BY GORDON JENKINS PLAYING) ♪

(BICYCLE BELL RINGS)

(SINGING) ♪ Merrily, merrily
We roll along ♪

♪ Lovers on bicycle wheels ♪

♪ Merrily, merrily
We roll along ♪

♪ Who needs automobiles... ♪

RAOUL: In 1887,

the Scottish surgeon
J.B. Dunlop

hit upon the idea of equipping
his young son's bicycle

with an inflatable
rubber tube.

The bicycle tire was patented
in 1888.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Four years earlier,
the Europeans

and the United States
had decided

that it was necessary
to regulate

the thriving exploitation
of the African continent

other than by whoever
got there first,

was the boldest,
or the most murderous.

A situation that was
naturally detrimental

to any respectable
business environment.

They convened
the Congo Conference

to arbitrate the looting.

The main outcome,
of this "gentlemen's agreement"

was the definitive elimination

of most existing forms
of African autonomy

and self-governance.

At the conference,

Belgium's king, Leopold II,

managed to secure
the whole Congo

as his private property.

A territory 80 times bigger
than Belgium.

Basically,
twice the surface area

of Texas
and California combined.

During the years that followed,

demand for rubber exploded.

This would carry
incalculable consequences

for the villages in Congo.

The king instituted
a monopoly on rubber and ivory

and ordered all natives
to supply labor

and products without payment.

Those who refused
had their villages burned down,

their children murdered,
and their hands cut off.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

(TRAM BELL RINGING)

Such methods led to a dramatic
increase in profitability,

profits which helped
in building, among other things,

impressive monuments

that still decorate
Brussels today.

(BIRDS SINGING)

RAOUL: Monuments paid for
with amputated hands.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (CONGREGATION SINGING) ♪

♪ Kyrie ♪

-♪ Kyrie eleison ♪
-♪ Kyrie ♪

♪ Kyrie ♪

-♪ Kyrie ♪
-♪ Kyrie eleison ♪

♪ Kyrie ♪

-♪ Kyrie ♪
-♪ Kyrie eleison ♪

"I bring you clarity,"

said the prophet,

"that you may understand

the world around you."

God tells us

that real life is after death.

The more we suffer,
the more you are granted

with joys in Heaven.

Can't this wait
until the end of my service?

Rubber doesn't wait!

(GRUNTS)

(PANTING)

Where's my rubber?

That's all I got today.

And why is that?

The trees have dried out.

You.

Get the basket.

(COUGHS)

(FLIES BUZZING)

No, stay, stay.

Please, please don't do that.
Please, please don't do that.

(SOBS)

(GUNSHOT)

(GRUNTS, COUGHS)

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(GRUNTS)

(BIRDS CALLING)

RAOUL: The Congo adventure
was pure looting,

Leopold II running the numbers.

Plundering bodies,
plundering resources.

The draining
of a whole continent.

A multi-billion-dollar heist.

(TRAIN WHISTLES)

RAOUL: Ten years after
the creation of the Congo state,

the writer Joseph Conrad
sent his first short story,

"An Outpost of Progress,"
to Cosmopolis magazine.

He, too, had gone up
the Congo River

on one
of the company's steamers.

He, too,
had seen the trading post

and listened
to the passengers' stories.

The story is simple.

Two Europeans,
Kayerts and Carlier,

are sent to a trading post

on the banks
of the great Congo River.

♪ (FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Apart from collecting ivory
from the locals,

they don't have much to do

and have plenty of time
to get bored.

Their only reading material
is a yellowed newspaper

that praises colonial expansion
as sacred work

in the service of civilization.

At first, the two companions
believe these fine words.

But gradually, they discover
that such words

are nothing but "sounds,"

sounds that lack content
outside the society

that created them.

Concepts such as "virtue,"
"crime," or "morality"

are nothing but sounds.

Soon, Kayerts and Carlier feel
that no one is watching them.

One day, they argue.

(GROANING)

(GUNSHOT)

RAOUL: Kayerts shoots Carlier
in self-defense

and does not realize until later

that in his panic,
he has killed an unarmed man.

As he sits by the body
of his companion,

Kayerts, for the first time,
really thinks.

Like the rest of mankind,

he has gone around
believing a lot of nonsense.

Left alone
with their own weaknesses,

far from any public opinion,
from any exterior gaze,

any human being is likely
to indulge in the worst.

(ENGINE RUMBLING)

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: Conrad and Wells
knew about each other

when the latter wrote
The Time Machine in 1895.

Hatred and fear
seize the time traveler.

He longs to kill Morlocks.

He wants to go straight
into the darkness,

"to kill the brutes."

The time traveler falls asleep

as he sits there
in the darkness,

and when he wakes,
the Morlocks are onto him,

soft and repugnant.

He shakes the "human rats "
off him...

-(SCREECHES)
-...and starts striking out.

He enjoys the feeling
of a swishing iron pipe

smashing into juicy flesh
and crushing bones.

This killing in Wells
is both horrific and voluptuous.

Wells's next book,
which we know Conrad also read,

was called
The Island of Dr. Moreau.

(CREATURE SCREECHING)

RAOUL: Dr. Moreau
uses his surgical skill

to create a kind of human being
out of animals.

The first of them all
to shed tears.

(SOBS)

She is human!

I'm not beaten!

(LAUGHS)

-Get everything ready.
-For what?

This time, I'll burn out
all the animal in her!

(SCREAMING) No!

DR. MOREAU:
I'll make her completely human!

No, no! No!

RAOUL: Dr. Moreau has created

one hundred and twenty
creatures,

but he has not succeeded
in creating a real human being.

The Island of Dr. Moreau
is the story of colonialism.

Just as the colonizer
civilizes the lower,

more animal races with the whip,

Dr. Moreau civilizes the animals
with torture,

maximizing the pain
in order to hasten evolution.

-♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(LION GROWLING)

RAOUL: Just as the colonizer
tries to create

a new kind of creature,
the civilized savage,

Dr. Moreau tries to create
the humanized animal.

Do you know what it means
to feel like God?

RAOUL: In both cases,
the means is terror.

♪ ("RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES"
BY RICHARD WAGNER PLAYING) ♪

RAOUL: Francis Ford Coppola's
Apocalypse Now

is based on Heart of Darkness.

In it and in all the real wars,

the men representing
civilization

out in the colonies
were "invisible,"

not only in the sense

that their guns killed
at a distance,

but also in that no one
at home really knew

what they were doing.

(BOMB EXPLODES)

(GUNFIRE)

(EXPLOSION BOOMS)

(GUNFIRE CONTINUES)

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

-(BIRDS CALLING)
-(MONKEYS CHATTER)

RAOUL: White by birth.

A default setting.

I know this story is painful,

but we need to know it.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The happiness of one

cannot be built on the pain
of all others.

There is almost
always a price to be paid

further down the line.

White by birth,

a simple pigmentation variation

transformed into
a source of power.

A mark of superiority,

an authorization for abuse,

a justification
for eternal immunity.

No modesty is necessary.

Nor is doubt a requirement.

(TARZAN YELLS)

RAOUL:
The ultimate privilege.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

RAOUL PECK:
In Columbus' travel journal,

there is a description
of the first sighting of land.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

All modern nation states

claim a kind of rationalized
origin story.

-So help me God.
-So help me God.

-So help me God.
-So help me God.

PECK:
The United States is supposedly
a nation of immigrants.

What if from the beginning...

the story was told
the wrong way?

And through that official story,

a new vision of the world
was created.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪