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Lovemore Ranga Mataire The Reader
Literature and film have always intertwined and inspired each other since the beginning of cinema. Many film directors have taken fiction as the reservoir for their works through adaptations, which have gone to be more popular than their mother text.

It was thus with interest that I stumbled upon the 2013 biographical documentary on Beatrice Mtetwa which was shockingly titled “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe” in a manner which inferred the personification of the rule of law to an individual as if she is some kind of deity.

If the producers of the film thought the film was a ground-breaking work in bringing awareness on the operation and implementation of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, then the lukewarm and complete lethargic response the film got from local audiences must surely have forced the three directors – Lorie Conway, Hopewell Chin’ono and Andrew Meldrum – scurrying for cover in shame.

While the film attests to basic tenets of a biographical documentary in terms of its plot and general structure, it overtly overburdens by agenda setting leaning more on the side of brazen political activism.

The film traces the development of the female protagonist Mtetwa as a child growing up in rural Swaziland where she is portrayed as a headstrong young girl who was ever ready to challenge the patriarchal social structure that she viewed as largely responsible for the stunted general social mobility of women in society. As a documentary, the film reveals actual dates, actual places, interviews from her friends and relatives and these are not trained actors. In other words, the film gives a veneer of reconstructing reality in the representation of Mtetwa.

However, things start to get suspicious as the film progresses as it becomes clear that in relating about Mtetwa’s childhood, the male voices are obliterated while female voices are the only voices that are given a blank page to eulogise about the protagonist’s exploits as a young rural girl.

In other words, one senses the latent infusion of feminism as the underlining ideology governing the whole spectrum of the film and in a way buttress the idea of Mtetwa’s struggles against a male-dominated society. It is at this point that the film abandons any pretense of it being an objective reconstruction of Mtetwa’s personal and professional life.

Yes, it is true that in some way every film has an agenda to set but the manner in which it is imposed on the documentary is nothing short of shoddy.

First introduced by Dr Maxwell McCombs and Dr Donald Shaw in 1977, agenda setting is a theory that implies that news plays an integral role in the shaping of political realities. Two highlighted things to note in agenda setting include the fact that the media filters and shapes reality rather than reflect it and that the media or film focus on just a few issues and subjects and the public tends to perceive such issues as more important.

It is not in doubt that “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe” filters the story of Zimbabwe using a narrow aperture of “human rights” issues as the staple diet that the people are being deprived of in the country. The issue of human rights is presented as the central problem afflicting Zimbabwe ahead of such issues as Aids, unemployment, land reform, corruption, inequality and education.

One cannot escape the deliberate attempt by the producers to sway public perception from the issues that concern their daily survival. The protagonist is cast as without any blemish – a lone obstinate soldier ready to face a heartless and brutal system.

Casting Mtetwa as some kind of superhuman is so apparent in the comments passed by journalist Gift Phiri who describes her as being “God-sent” in a way that makes her angelic and with divine prowess. A former Chimanimani legislator who is also interviewed in the film also refashions Mtetwa as having divine influence as he owes his life to her when he claims that if it wasn’t for her swift intervention, he could have been killed.

Consistent with agenda setting prominence is given to all voices that exalt Mtetwa’s exploits while shunting out those with variant views like Professor Jonathan Moyo who was then the Minister of Information and Publicity when the film was shot.