Two political enemies are forced on a joint mission to write Zimbabwe’s new constitution. It is the ultimate test that will either take the country a decisive step closer to democracy and away from President Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship - or toward renewed repression. In a country with little respect for human rights, impeded by economic sanctions from the international community, and hyperinflation running rampant, failure is not an option. Democrats follows the two top politicians, MP Paul Mangwana (ZANU-PF) and MP Douglas Mwonzora (MDC), from the governing party and the opposition respectively, who have been appointed to lead Zimbabwe through the process of writing a new constitution. In 2008, the two men opposed each other in one of Africa’s bloodiest elections. Today, they are still political enemies but united in the ambition to make history by reforming Zimbabwe into a modern democracy. By going behind the scenes of the constitutional process, Democratsoffers a unique insight into the inner workings of the Zimbabwean government at the highest level. We will be present at a critical and, possibly, history-making juncture as the political elite struggles to find a new postcolonial identity - a struggle that may be the harbinger of a new epoch in the development of modern African states.

Director Camilla Nielsson, born 1973, has a BA in anthropology from the University of Copenhagen and an MA in visual anthropology from New York University. Nielsson has worked as a producer and media consultant for UNICEF and UNESCO, for whom she directed the short documentary The Children of Darfur (2006), which won the Monte Carlo TV Festival Grand Prix. Nielsson contributed Mumbai Disconnected (with Frederik Jacobi, 2009) to a series of documentaries about megacities entitled Cities on Speed. Democrats (2014), whih was selected for IDFA’s Feature-Length Competition, is Nielsson’s first feature documentary.