My Land My Life

The film covers the journey of Rehad Desai, who lived in Zimbabwe before and decides to return with a film crew. He takes us into the heart of the Zimbabwe land crisis. The director, whose voice-over leads the narrative, tries to make sense of the conflict that takes him deep into the contested and strife-torn farming area. Through personal reflections on the past, the documentary provides a political history of Zimbabwe. By talking to three main characters, Fred Rose, Kiliwane and Big Boy Musa, the story provides an essential background to the present crisis that is the core of the film. Fred is a white farmer's wife, Kiliwane is a genuine war veteran from the liberation struggle, and Big Boy is a tobacco grader on the farm. With a nice mixture of black-and-white and colour footage, the director emphasises the turbulence of the last few decades in former Rhodesia. The alternating interviews provide a background to people's arguments about politics. One small but extremely important and disturbing side story is the childhood memory of one of the characters, reflecting the deep emotional scars caused by racism. The film ends with the elections and as the contest for voters in 2002 heats up, all of the characters are caught up in the events surrounding the campaign.