Filmed over three years, the filmmakers of Democrats were given unprecedented access into a unique governmental process in Zimbabwe. Following the leaders of two opposing parties as they crossed the country campaigning, listening to the voices of the people, and then struggling to write a new democratic constitution for the country that has been under the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe for more than 30 years, Democrats is like a crash-course in how to form a democracy.

The two main characters, Paul Mangwana and Douglas Mwonzora, come from opposing political parties and the pair make a fascinating display representing the dueling political attitudes in the country. Mangwana was appointed chairman by Mugabe, and is part of ZANU-PF, the party that had a major role in liberation from colonial powers but today is known to be mostly the tool of Mugabe. Mwonzora comes from MDC-T, the opposition party that displays astonishing objections to Mugabe’s mandates. In previous decades, any leader that openly opposed the Mugabe administration would end up disappeared or assassinated, but here Mwonzora is publically critical of ZANU-PF. His commentary throughout the film is firmly democratic, and thus anti-Mugabe.

Director Nielsson’s footage of Mangwana and Mwonzora traveling across the country tells so many stories. It tells about the poverty of the land as meetings are held in dirt fields. When Mangwana pulls up in his new truck it’s astonishing to see the shiny new machine in this landscape of goats and mud shacks. We see political extortion; when the leaders show up to meet the locals at rallies, they find hoards of people that have been bused in by ZANU-PF, and under threats of violence, Zimbabweans opposed to ZANU-PF’s policy are strong-armed into voicing support for the president and the current, and unmistakably awful, political system.

The footage of the final process, when the committee convenes with the intention of finally writing the constitution draft, is a marvel of documentary making. At the time this process was very secret, so the filmmaker’s access is extraordinary. There is so much drama and conflict between Mangwana and Mwonzora, and so little agreement on anything, that the tension over whether or not the committee will be able to finish the constitution at all makes the story suspenseful all the way to the bitter end.