Film screening and panel discussion at NMF
11 May 2011
May 11, 2011 – The International Centre for Transitional Justice(ICTJ), Curious Pictures and Pivot Pictures are hosting a film screening of The Axe and the Tree: Zimbabwe’s Legacy of Political Violence on May 24, 2011 at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion between the film’s director Rumbi Katedza, Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, and the ICTJ’s Howard Varney. It will be moderated by University of the Witwatersrand Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Prof. Tawana Kupe.
Although based on events in Zimbabwe, The Axe and the Tree touches on the larger themes of political persecution and violence:
Between April and June 2008, there was an outbreak of extreme violence in Zimbabwe when, for the first time in 30 years, the ruling Zanu PF was defeated in parliamentary elections by the MDC-T. In the presidential election, however, no outright winner was declared, and a run-off vote was scheduled between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
In the two months leading up to the presidential poll, a campaign of organised violence and torture targeted the MDC-T and its support base. Over 300 people were assassinated and more than 15 000 serious human rights violations recorded.
The Axe and the Tree was shot in difficult circumstances in the second half of 2010, and focuses on the experiences of four individuals who were living in the high density, peri-urban settlements around Harare during the violence of 2008. It explores the impact of the violence on their lives, and their hopes and fears for the future.
The film tells a universal story of the challenges faced by victims of organised violence and torture. But in Zimbabwe, this is compounded by systematic impunity for these violations, and the ongoing threat of new violence, because across the country, victims are forced to share their streets and communities with known perpetrators.
RSVP by emailing nmf@nelsonmandela.org by Friday, May 20, 2011.
