Since 2000, when Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe began his violent “land reform” program, the country has descended into chaos, the economy has collapsed and millions of Zimbabweans have suffered because of famine, illness, drought and economic hardship. Most white-owned farms have been reallocated to friends and officials of the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front who have little knowledge, experience and, in many cases, interest in farming. Food production has crashed and extensive corruption has scared off foreign investors. Michael Campbell is one of the few hundred white farmers left and, like the hundreds of white farmers before him, he has suffered years of invasions and violence at his farm, which is also home to 500 black workers and their families. Nearly a decade into Mugabe’s regime, 75-year-old grandfather Mike has managed—just barely—to hold onto his farm. But he is unable to call upon the protection of Zimbabwean authorities and unable even to rely on the support of the dwindling numbers of white farmers around him, who all face the same brutal intimidation. In a desperate measure, Mike and his family take the unprecedented step of challenging Robert Mugabe before the South African Development Community international court, charging him and his government with racial discrimination and human rights violations.  The press is banned in Zimbabwe, making this film not only an account of one family’s daring but perhaps also the outside world’s only glimpse of what it is like for white farmers inside Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. The film stays firmly rooted in Mike’s story and leaves it to the viewer to grapple with and contextualize the complexities of Zimbabwe’s colonial history.

(Silverdocs)