Stroud based Arturi Film’s production Mugabe and The White African, currently on release in London cinemas before a wider UK release and receiving exemplary reviews, has just been nominated for a BAFTA Award and is Oscar shortlisted for a nomination. The film has already won several awards including the prestigious BIFA Award (British Independent Film Award).

Arturi Films, run by producers David Pearson and Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, began the film which was shot in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and the UK in 2007. They currently have a slate of fiction feature films, two of which Hollow Point , a thriller, written and directed by Richard Parry, and The Hum supernatural thriller, written by David Pearson and Isabelle Raynauld which is a coproduction with Canada, should go into production this year. David who is also Director of the Screenwriter’s Festival which attracts Oscar and BAFTA winning talent to its line up each year, says, “ It has been gratifying to see how Mugabe and The White African is both selling out in its London cinema run and getting critical and awards recognition. It took two years of hard work to make the film but we always thought it would appeal to an audience as it delivers a strong emotional punch.”

The film which has been described as a “tense thriller”, provides insight into life in Zimbabwe today and follows the nail biting case brought by farmer Mike Campbell against his President Mugabe for racism with the help of international lawyers. Mugabe and the White African charts one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of a relentless campaign of state-sanctioned terror. Mike, helped by Ben Freeth his son in law, fights to defend his property, his family’s livelihood and those of the 500 black workers who also live on the farm. The film is directed by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey and produced by David Pearson and Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock of Arturi Films.

The film’s website has the trail and a list of the cinema showing the film and more are added as they are agreed at the Screenings Schedule page.

The dates include the Watershed from the 5th February and the Electric Cinema Wooton-under-Edge in late February and early March.

“Superb… Thought-provoking, distressing, shockingly tense and always very sad, it is surely one of the best documentaries of the year.” TIME OUT- Five stars

“Excellent, moving anti-racist documentary. The story unfolds in a way that is stirring and never less than riveting. This is one of the most powerful documentaries I have ever seen."
DAILY MAIL Five Stars

" This is one of those documentaries that stays with you for years. The injustice infuriates and the story, simply and deftly told, breaks your heart.” Empire Film Magazine Four Stars

For further details and photos please contact David Pearson 01453 884974

david@arturifilms.com