Mugabe and the White African Reviews
Top CriticThe result is part legal thriller, part five-hankie melodrama.
Nick's Flick Picks
The filmmakers leave massive and sometimes reactionary holes in a film that could easily have pled a more accommodating and sophisticated yet equally airtight case.
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| Original Score: C+
In a continent where despotic rule is not uncommon, there is little argument that Mugabe is the most monstrous of rulers.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Christian Science Monitor
The final hearing is the most extraordinary scene in the film.
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| Original Score: B+
Bailey and Thompson managed to create a remarkably vivid portrait of a land and its people, while bringing us two unforgettable heroes in Campbell and Freeth.
| Original Score: 4/5
Slant Magazine
Mugabe and the White African is cinema-as-journalism at its most aesthetically confident and humanely satisfying.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Film-Forward.com
This extraordinary profile in courage starkly bears passionate and brave witness as two flinty farmers stand up for their rights in a good vs. evil fight.
Full Review
| Original Score: 9/10
Compelling true-life story of the legal battle between a white farmer and the repressive Zimbabwean regime.
Many viewers will leave "Mugabe and the White African" thinking that they have seen few, if any, documentaries as wrenching, sad and infuriating, and those feelings will be justified.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The film clandestinely captures marauders in action while embedding itself in the imperiled home of aging farmer Michael Campbell.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
BET.com
Not highlighting the colonized history of Zimbabwe is a huge error for the one-sided doc that at times depicts the Black Zimbabweans as emotionless and racist savages. That said, it's a fearless film but do your own research to be fully informed.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
Tthis incendiary documentary showcases Mugabe's corrupt use of land reform to further polarize a fragile nation already divided along racial lines.
Movie Habit
Outrage powers documentary on Zimbabwean injustice
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Sunday Times (UK)
The film serves as a testimony on behalf of all of Mugabe's victims.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Independent on Sunday
It excels as a courtroom drama, a tense thriller, a ringing call to arms, and, most of all, as a humbling portrait of the unflappable, indefatigable farmers and their families.
Shadows on the Wall
Shot more like a thriller, this powerful documentary follows a white Zimbabwean family as they take on one of the most ruthless dictators in human history. It's both riveting and wrenching, and needs to be seen as far and wide as possible.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Empire Magazine
This is one of those documentaries that stays with you for years. The injustice infuriates and the story, simply and deftly told, breaks your heart.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The film's strength lies in its fearless reportage.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Times [UK]
Your lasting emotions are of respect for the two farmers, mixed with a lingering, helpless sadness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
