Finding Mercy

In this compelling directing debut, Robyn Paterson goes in search of her childhood friend Mercy, with whom she grew up in Zimbabwe. At the age of eight, the girls had the honor of welcoming the new leader Robert Mugabe at the airport and hanging a garland of flowers around his neck. Robyn is white, Mercy black, and they were the "poster children" of the newly independent state. Things may have looked fine on the surface, but the reality under President Mugabe was very different, with thousands of opponents imprisoned, tortured or murdered during his regime. Two decades later, Zimbabwe has been traumatized by dictatorship and the country is on the verge of economic collapse. Paterson's family left for New Zealand years ago, but the filmmaker can't get her best friend Mercy out of her mind. Is she still alive? How did things work out for her? Paterson decides to return to where she grew up, determined to find Mercy. Together with her cameraman, she embarks on a perilous journey through a country where no one can be trusted and press freedom is virtually nonexistent. The history of Zimbabwe unfolds through Paterson's discoveries and encounters, and she is confronted with the decline of her homeland, the country she once loved so much.