Operation Leopard

La légion saute sur Kolwezi, also known as Operation Leopard, is a French war film directed by Raoul Coutard and filmed in French Guiana. The script is based on the true story of the Battle of Kolwezi that happened in 1978. It was diligently described in a book of the same name by former 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment Captain Pierre Sergent. He published his book in 1979, and the film came out in 1980. Coutard shot the film in a documentary style. The film is based on true events. In 1978, approximately 3,000 heavily armed fighters from Katanga crossed the border to the Zaire and marched into Kolwezi, a mining centre for copper and cobalt. They took 3,000 civilians as hostages. Within a few days, between 90 and 280 hostages were killed. The rebels appeared to be unpredictable and are reported to have threatened to annihilate all civilians.