South African journalist Michael Goldsmith presents Jean-Bédel Bokassa, dictator of the Central African Republic from 1966 to 1979, through eyewitness testimony.

Echoes From A Somber Empire will be somewhat surprising to those familiar with Werner Herzog’s documentary technique. In fact, for this account of Jean-Bédel Bokassa’s dictatorship, he does without his own voiceover narration, giving space to the witnesses of this stirring and timely story.