President movie review & film summary (2021)

He is clearly the more popular candidate, drawing enormous crowds while Mnangagwa can’t even fill a stadium after bussing in alleged supporters. And yet, it comes as no spoiler when Mnangagwa insists that he won, despite the fact that the numbers never add up in his favor, with 200,000 extra votes being tabulated in a given province. When asked how sixteen counties could’ve possibly reported identical election results, the ZANU-PF’s laughable lawyer argues that only a behavioral scientist could account for how such an amazing coincidence could occur. Not even a second grader who cheated on his math test could get away with this pathetic lie—at least, one would hope.

Executive produced by Danny Glover and Thandiwe Newton, “President” serves as a nightmarish follow-up to Nielsson’s equally riveting 2014 documentary, “Democrats,” an intimate look at the three-year process in which Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) was given the futile task of drafting a constitution that would bring democratic laws to Mugabe’s dictatorship. Both films feature a great deal of unsettling laughter from both politicians and citizens, who appear to be voicing their awareness that the very notion of democracy being attempted in Zimbabwe is a farce. Indeed, Paul Mangwana, a lawyer and unequivocal “yes man” for ZANU-PF, openly admits to Nielsson that “the game of politics is pretending,” and that any effort to subvert Mugabe’s system is “useless.” 

In my review of “Democrats,” I wrote, “How Nielsson could capture such honest responses—from a man whose very life depends on his ability to deceive—is one of the film’s lingering mysteries.” Mangwana resurfaces in “President” during a crisis meeting held by the Zimbabwe Election Committee (ZEC) one week prior to the election, where attendees voice their outrage that MDC was denied access to the voter roll, ballot papers and the ballot printing process itself. In a feeble attempt at drowning out these criticisms, Mangwana whines about these “unfounded” allegations before storming out of the room, sporting all the Trumpian behavior of a true loser.

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