The Zimbabwean government has banned Danish director Camilla Nilsson’s documentary “The President” from its Oscar shortlist on the country’s corrupt 2018 presidential election, diverse can exclusively reveal.
In a letter dated June 16, the country’s watchdog placed a ban on the Sundance Award-winning documentary, insisting it “has the potential to incite violence” as Zimbabwe prepares for presidential elections in 2023.
The film’s makers are now challenging the ruling in Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court, promising a long legal battle ahead.
“The President” is a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Democrat Nelson, who chronicled the arduous construction of Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution. Zimbabwe is at a crossroads, as it prepares for its first elections since the ouster of Robert Mugabe, who was ousted from power nearly four decades later in the wake of a coup. military in 2017.
The film follows opposition leader Nelson Chamisa as he challenges the dictator’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as he attempts to undo the corrupt legacy of Mugabe’s rule. Nelson and Vice President Henrik Bohn Ibsen deftly move from raucous political rallies to dire meeting halls to the halls of the earth’s highest court, following the fading hopes of the opposition party as a systematic campaign of fraud, intimidation, fraud, and outright violence. Through a horrific crackdown on a post-election protest that left six dead – the ruling ZANU-PF party was able to claim an unlawful victory.
“The President” will be released across the United States on the PBS award-winning POV documentary series on August 8.
Talking to diverse From Copenhagen, Nelson described the film as “a testament to the injustice of the stolen elections.” Academy Award-nominated producer Signe Byrge Sørensen (“The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence”) said the ban is the latest example of a growing crackdown on dissent by the Zimbabwean government, adding: “They are concerned about people seeing what is happening with their own eyes. “.
Chris Mickey of Harare law firm Atherstone & Cook, which is handling the case for the Danish filmmakers, has appealed the ruling of the Censorship Board in the Constitutional Court. In a statement submitted to diverseHe said, “Our constitution defines Zimbabwe as a democracy. Thus, we find this ban to be very disappointing.” He added that the council’s decision “contradicts the democratic tradition of freedom of expression.”
Nelson had high hopes when she returned to Zimbabwe to shoot “The President,” which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021. “Zimbabwe has been under Mugabe’s rule since independence in 1980,” she said. When he was overthrown in a military coup, there was much hope among the entire population that there would be time for change now, so that the winds of democracy might finally reach the country. We were privileged and humbled to be able to tell this story.”
“President” won the World Cinema Special Documentary Jury Award for Realistic Filmmaking at Sundance. diverseGay Lodge called the “vital and devastating documentary” an “interesting authoritative documentary on an epic scale”, calling it “another essential chapter in Zimbabwe’s long, skewed path to democracy”.
The film continues to chronicle nearly a decade of Zimbabwe’s democratic transition for Nelson, whose previous film “The Democrats” was also banned by the government when it was released in 2015. The decision was eventually overturned by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court after a three-year legal battle.
In either case, the oversight board was not obligated by law to interpret its ruling. Nelson referred to a government claim that the film threatened to “incite violence and undermine the state” ahead of next year’s elections, noting dryly: “Essentially, to make a revolution.”
Four years ago, former Vice President Mnangagwa came to power with high hopes he could reverse decades of hard-line rule under President Mugabe, and bring Zimbabwe back from the brink of economic collapse. But a man dubbed “the Crocodile” for his ruthlessness and political cunning instead drove the economy into free fall, while failing to implement promised reforms and ruthlessly suppressing dissent.
In July 2020, author and director Tsitsi Dangarimbaja (“I want a wedding dress”) was arrested at a demonstration in Harare with journalist Julie Barnes, both of whom were calling for the release of journalists and institutional reforms. Earlier this year, the Berlin International Film Festival called for them to be acquitted of charges of inciting public violence, disturbing the peace, bigotry and violating coronavirus regulations. Freelance reporter for The New York TimesJason Moyo was also convicted this year of breaching the country’s immigration laws on what were widely seen as politically motivated charges.
“The political climate is more brutal than it was under Mugabe,” Nelson said. “It was unreasonable to imagine five or six years ago that the post-Mugabe regime would be more brutal, but the number of arrests of journalists and human rights activists and the number of killings of dissenting voices [has increased]. She added, “I don’t know if I will return to Zimbabwe until then [case] has been resolved. I have a different kind of fear [Mnangagwa] than I did to Mugabe.”
Despite the worsening climate, the filmmakers said that taking their case to the Constitutional Court was a victory in and of itself, regardless of the outcome. “If we win the case — and even if we don’t — the paper trail of fighting these battles continues to set an important legal precedent for future generations of Zimbabwean journalists and filmmakers,” Nelson said. “It will create a paper trail on the illegal actions of the current government.”
Berg added that the legal battle only underscores the global message at the heart of the “president,” at a time when democratic norms around the world appear to be on shaky ground. “Democracies everywhere are very precious,” she said. “This movie is so important to Zimbabwe, but it’s also important for the rest of us to remember what democracy really is, how important it is and how something can go wrong that we lose.”
[ad_2]
