La légion saute sur Kolwezi also known as Operation Leopard is a French war film directed by Raoul Coutard. 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 1 REP Captain Pierre Sergent. He published his book in 1979; the film came out in 1980. Raoul Coutard shot the film in a documentary style.
The film is based on true events: In 1978 approximately 3000 heavily armed fighters from Katange crossed the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and marched into Kolwezi, a mining centre for copper and cobalt. They took 3000 civilians as hostages. Within a few days between 90 and 280 hostages got killed. The rebels appeared to be unpredictable and are reported to have threatened to annihilate all civilians. The Congo's head of state Mobutu urged Belgium, France and the USA to help. France sent the Foreign Legion's 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment who were flown from Corsica to Kolwezi. Following their arrival they secured the perimeter in cooperation with Belgian soldiers from Zaire and then started to evacuate the civilists. Within two days more than 2000 Europeans and about 3000
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