The low-context President...does little to explain what Zimbabwe’s democracy is and why opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa has so much faith in it when the country is notorious for Robert Mugabe ruling it with an iron fist.

| Jul 13, 2022

​​The idea that a presidential election campaign in Zimbabwe would be the subject of a powerful documentary might seem an unlikely one. But in the hands of Danish filmmaker Camilla Nielsson, "President" is not only gripping but downright revelatory

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 16, 2022

Infuriating and tense, President bares it all to show the lengths those in power will go to maintain control.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2022

The subject at the center of President takes on a frightening significance for which its makers could never have planned.

| Apr 1, 2022

The films latter section is every bit as involving as what came before and, perhaps more importantly, highlights how the battle for democracy cant involve just one man at the vanguard.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 25, 2022

There is enough value to make the film watchable and worthwhile overall, but for general audiences, this is simply going to be too dry of an experience to fully appreciate.

| Feb 22, 2022

Give Danish filmmaker Camilla Nielsson two hours and she’ll bring you up to speed on the nation’s 2018 elections, in which a young, popular politician named Nelson Chamisa took on the ruling elite.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 18, 2022

A reminder and a lesson in the ideas, realities, and definitions of democracy, and its apparent fragility.

| Feb 18, 2022

President is a sobering and powerful reminder that democracies are tough to achieve, and even harder to maintain.

| Feb 15, 2022

What President does well is show that linear narrative is not necessarily the point in the fight for democracy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 11, 2022

[A] purposefully infuriating documentary.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 17, 2021

"President" is in-the-moment documentary storytelling of the highest order, and what it's showing is what the threat to democracy everywhere looks like and will continue to look like.

| Dec 17, 2021

Nielsson's access to Chamisa allows for an intimate look at the Catch-22 of establishing a democracy amid state-sanctioned violence and corruption, and the grit of those fighting for it.

| Dec 16, 2021

Watching Chamisa himself walk through crowds will set your nerves on edge as Neilsson's camera reveals just how vulnerable he is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 16, 2021

Masterful documentarian Camilla Nielsson returns to the country after her lauded 2014 doc Democrats - which was about former Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe - and her film hits a very particular nerve, given recent events in the U.S.

| Dec 14, 2021

What proceeds is a discussion about the difficulties in claiming victory without the Military eliminating them, violently. Unfortunately their worries are apt.

| Original Score: 70/100 | Aug 19, 2021

Camila Nielssondoes an exemplary job of illustrating the gross injustices thrust upon a country while watching their rights become violated and voices silenced all in the name of democracy. The US mailbox shenanigans of 2020 got nothing on this story.

| Jun 28, 2021

It's the reactions, the details... that makes this film so fascinating. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 7, 2021

Nielsson's unflinching camera keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way.

| Feb 17, 2021

A stunning work of deep journalism that proves just how fragile and messy democracy can be, especially in the hands of a ruler who lacks respect for his nation's newly written constitution.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 16, 2021