AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL NEW ZEALAND

Synopsis

Awards/Screening: Best Documentary, Zimbabwe International Film Festival 2022

Every year, over a hundred of the most talented law students from across the African continent gather in a different capital city to compete at the prestigious African Human Rights Moot Competition, the largest mock court competition in Africa. At the competition, these young aspiring lawyers act as both prosecution and defence in a cutting-edge human rights fictional court case, each hoping to win the case and bring back the trophy to their home country. African Moot takes a journey with 4 passionate law student teams – from Cape Town, Cairo, Kampala and Nairobi, as they spend months preparing in their home countries for a case dealing with refugee rights, and then travel to Botswana to converge for one intense week of legal oratory, debate, adventure, bonding and high emotion. Tracking their progress through various events and competition rounds, leading to a dramatic finale before international judges at Botswana’s highest court, the film intimately captures the student characters’ personal hopes, doubts, disappointment and inner and outer conflicts as they navigate this high stakes event. African Moot uses the surface device of the popular competition documentary genre to ask deeper questions about refugee rights, freedom of movement, African identity and the possibility of hope for the future – while also showing how committed youth are trying to shape the future of the continent on which they live.