There aren't too many political docs like Democrats which follows the struggles of two politicians in Zimbabwe as they help to draft a democratic constitution during the reign of dictator Robert Mugabe, who has been President of Zimbabwe since 1980. One politician, Douglas Mwonzora, represents the Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.), the opposing party to Mugabe's ZANU-PF, represented by politician Paul Mangwana. Both Mangwana and Mwonzora must work together to draft the constitution in spite of the political tensions between them. Director Camilla Nielsson provides you with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to both politicians thereby allowing Democrats to be both fair and balanced. It's frightening to observe how daunting the process of drafting a constitution is in Zimbabwe despite. One can only imagine that it would be much more challenging to implement the constitution, though, once it's drafted and passed. Just like in every country though, democracy is easy to lose, but very difficult to win back especially when tyranny and corruptions runs rampant. Even if you're not a big fan of politics, you'll probably still find yourself entertained and riveted by frictions between the M.D.C and ZANU-PF parties, and fascinated by how charismatic both politicians turn out to be. Kudos to Nielsson for humanizing Mangwana and Mwonzora in ways that the mainstream media rarely if ever accomplishes. In other words, Nielsson is a not only a talented film director, but also a true journalist. Democrats opened Wednesday, November 18th at Film Forum. It would make for an interesting double feature with another political documentary opening this weekend, Sweet Micky For President.

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Mediterranea
Directed by Jonas Carpignano