Much To The Land of Promises is a documentary that takes the viewer into pre-
independent Zimbabwe and explores issues of colonialism, xenophobia and social
injustice. It also exposes the dilemmas that immigrants face as they are caught in
between rejection in a foreign land and the hardships back home.
Directed by new Zimbabwean filmmaker Itayi Cosmo Zengeya, the film screened at the
Germany Society, Harare, Zimbabwe, on 4 September with the filmmaker in attendance
for a post-screening Q&A.
“When I first began making the documentary film in 2009, I did not know what the
outcome of the project would be. I didn’t know what kind of information I would stumble
upon,’ Zengeya posted on his Facebook page. “I still have questions, many
unanswered. Was the so-called labour migration an issue of economics or, as some
would call it, systematic slavery?’
Much To The Land Promises won the Best Zimbabwean Documentary Film at the recent
International Images Film Festival 2013 in Harare, following its Official Selection at this
year’s Luxor International Film Festival in Egypt.
It is scheduled to launch in the UK on 6 October.
