The film describes the fight for democracy and socio-economic justice in the tiny sub-Saharan absolute monarchy of Swaziland through the eyes of Dlamini, a leading member of Swaziland’s largest banned political party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).
Dlamini said, ‘The
documentary on Swaziland has helped to give a voice to the suffering people of
Swaziland who are in a bitter struggle for freedom and democracy. My story, as
captured in the documentary, is the story of most activists in Swaziland who
are subjected to torture, beatings, arrests and forced exile. The nomination of
the documentary is a victory for the people of Swaziland as Mswati’s regime can
no longer afford to fool the world that there is no problem in Swaziland.’
In
August 2015, the film won the main prize and the prize for best short
documentary at the A Film for Peace-festival in Italy as part of Tom Heinemann
and Erling Borgen’s series, A Heart That Never Dies. The series has been aired
on Danish-, Swedish- and Norwegian national television.
Bheki
Dlamini is the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress, the youth wing of
PUDEMO. He currently lives in exile at a secret location in South Africa. The
Swazi police’s torture of him by way of “severe beatings and suffocation
torture” was mentioned in Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report.
Tom
Heinemann has won the Danish Outstanding Investigative Journalist of the year
award twice, and has been runner up for Journalist of the year in Denmark three
times. In 2007 he won the Prix Italia in the current affairs selection.
See also
DOCUMENTARY ON FREEDOM STRUGGLE
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