The Gown – student newspaper at Queen's University Belfast.

REVIEW: Mugabe and the White African

“If good men do nothing, evil will prevail”. As the tag line suggests, this is a documentary which follows the struggle of a righteous few against the actions of the oppressive state in which they live.

BY COLIN WILLIAMSON

www.queensfilmtheatre.com

Michael Campbell has owned Mount Carmel Farm in Zimbabwe since 1980, now he is fighting, along with his wife, daughter and son-in-law, to retain it against the wishes of President Robert Mugabe and his program of ‘Land Reform’.

Mugabe promised, when elected, that he would create a “Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans”, and proceeded to strip land, usually forcefully, from the white farmers under the auspices of giving it back to the native black African. What Campbell and his family are attempting to establish is that they are African too, they just happen to be white, and that what Mugabe is doing is not only immoral, but illegal.

Both the film’s opening and closing scenes take place in the court of the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) in Namibia. The legal dimension of the struggle, the attempt to expose the blatant discriminatory nature of Mugabe’s forced evictions, provides much of the drama and suspense to this tale. As the wheels of justice turn frustratingly slowly towards the films conclusion, you find yourself gripped with hope that it is justice that will prevail, and not the diversionary tactics of Mugabe’s legal henchmen.

It is away from the courtroom where the real battle is portrayed, a battle to cling onto a way of life and indeed life itself. Whilst the film does not contain any graphic depictions of violence, eschewing a modern media obsession for ‘disaster porn’, it is almost more frightening to observe the menacing, ever-present, threat of violence that runs through the entire feature. The film is shot in two styles, with footage from both a professional crew and the personal video entries of the family themselves. It is this raw, spur of the moment filming on handheld camcorders which captures the almost unbearable degree of tension that is being endured. An early encounter between Campbell’s son-in-Law, Ben Preeth, and the would be occupier of his farm is particularly ominous.

Whilst the world was, and is, aware of the plight of the white farmer in Zimbabwe, it is sometimes overlooked that black Africans are also suffering. This documentary highlights the personal injustices and terror that is dealt out to the white man, but it also alludes to the misery of those black people who would dare to side with him. What can be gathered is that a despotic regime serves only its own purposes, despite the proclamations it may make.

This is a film which will engage you with the protagonists. You will share their fear, hope, despair and even occasional joy. And, at the films conclusion, it is difficult not to feel affected by their ultimate fate, as inevitable as it may be.

Tags: african, film, Gown, mugabe, newspaper, QFT, Queen's, queen's university, Review, student, students, white

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