Overview
At the age of eight, New Zealand filmmaker Robyn Paterson was full of anticipation as she stood on the runway of a Zimbabwean air force with her best friend Mercy. They were there to meet their hero Comrade Robert Mugabe. With Robyn pale-skinned and Mercy dark, they were the poster children meant to represent the new, reformed Zimbabwe. But even then, Mercy’s Matabele tribe was being massacred by Mugabe’s special forces.
Paterson’s family left for a new life in New Zealand while Mercy’s was moved to a shanty town. But she never forgot her best friend. Two decades on, she returns to Zimbabwe on a high-risk search for Mercy, not knowing what she would find or whether authorities would buy her cover story of being a tourist coming home to see her boyfriend.