A FILM documenting a white farming family’s fight to stay on their land in Zimbabwe won an award for Best Cinema Documentary at the British Documentary Awards on Tuesday night.

British filmmakers Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson, who received the award, smuggled large-format film equipment into Zimbabwe for their documentary Mugabe and the White African, which was shown on Channel 4 in the UK.

The film, which has been nominated for an Oscar, has already earned its star, Kent-born Ben Freeth, 40, an MBE from the Queen “for services to the Zimbabwean agricultural community”.

In 2009, Ben, his father-in-law Mike Campbell and their family were forced off Mount Carmel farm in the district of Chegutu after they lost a Supreme Court bid to stay on the farm which had been designated for resettlement by the government.

They took their fight to the SADC Tribunal in Namibia which granted an interim measure ordering the government of Zimbabwe to take no steps, directly or indirectly, to evict Campbell from the farm or interfere with his use of the land.

But Zimbabwe’s government said it did not recognise the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. SADC leaders, confronted with the matter of Zimbabwe’s non-compliance in August, suspended the Tribunal for at least six months while a review is carried out by regional Justice Ministers into the body's “role functions and terms of reference”.

Tuesday’s awards, also known as The Griersons after the pioneering Scottish documentary maker, John Grierson, were held at the BFI Southbank, London.

MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN TRAILER