Forget Ken Burns or the History Channel: this three-episode series on the strife-ridden history of the Congo is unlike any documentary series you've seen before. Vivid sepia-toned animation and first-person narrative voice-overs blend with rarely seen, often startling archival footage to reveal a country whose struggles embody all of African history. From early colonial interference to Belgium's bloody “red-rubber” industrial exploitation of the early twentieth century, from the rise of African nationalism and the assassination of independence leader Patrice Lumumba to the reign of the corrupt Mobutu dictatorship, the three episodes of Kongo bring to life the richness and passions of a country, and a continent.