It was awarded winner of best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards. Time Out called it ‘Thought- provoking, distressing, shockingly tense and always very sad, it is surely one of the best documentaries of the year.’
Michael Campbell is one of a handful of white farmers still left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began enforcing his controversial land seizure program, an initiative intended to reclaim white-owned land and redistribute it to poor black Zimbabweans.
Since 2000, formerly thriving farms that employed thousands, now sit derelict while poverty and hunger are rife amongst the majority of the country’s citizens; but 74-year-old Mike refuses to back down.
Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 2008 presidential election, Mugabe and the White African follows Mike and son-in-law Ben Freeth’s harrowing attempt to take Mugabe to an international court for racism and violation of their human rights. It is an unprecedented case, upon which rests not only Mike and his family’s future, but also the future of millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who continue to suffer at the hands of one of the world’s most infamous tyrants.
Much of this film was shot covertly. To have been caught filming would have meant imprisonment. The film was released in the UK on 8 January 2010.
www.mugabeandthewhiteafrican.com (Includes a list of where its being screened)
WIN: A pair of tickets to see the movie at the hmvcurzon in Wimbledon on Saturday 16 January at 1315 or Sunday 17 January 1045. Email competitions@sapromo.com by 3pm on Friday 15 January with your name, phone number and ‘Mugabe Curzon’ as the subject.
