Sundance Prize Winner ‘President’ Banned in Zimbabwe for ‘Potential to Incite Violence’ (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comChristopher Vourlias The government of Zimbabwe has banned “President,” Danish filmmaker Camilla Nielsson’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary about the African nation’s corrupt 2018 presidential election, Variety can exclusively reveal.In a letter dated June 16, the country’s censorship board slapped a ban on the Sundance prize-winning documentary, insisting that it “has the potential to incite violence” as Zimbabwe gears up for presidential elections in 2023.The filmmakers are now challenging the ruling in Zimbabwe’s constitutional court, promising a long legal battle ahead.“President” is the follow-up to Nielsson’s critically acclaimed “Democrats,” which chronicled the laborious construction of Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution.
It captures Zimbabwe at a crossroads, as it prepares for its first election since the ouster of Robert Mugabe, who was forced from power after nearly four decades in the wake of a 2017 military coup.
The film follows opposition leader Nelson Chamisa as he challenges the dictator’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, while trying to undo the corrupt legacy of Mugabe’s reign.
Deftly moving from raucous political rallies to drab meeting rooms to the halls of the highest court in the land, Nielsson and DoP Henrik Bohn Ipsen follow the dwindling hopes of the opposition party as a systemic campaign of rigging, intimidation, fraud and outright violence — capped by a harrowing crackdown on a post-election protest that left six dead — enables the ruling ZANU-PF party to claim an ill-gotten victory.“President” will be released across the U.S.
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