The West Lusaka Man

On 30 August 2001, the Dutch entrepreneur Roel Goosen went to Sakala's Bottlestore in Lusaka-West, Zambia. He hoped to get a lift downtown, where he wanted to pick up his Zambian fiancée. That's just about everything anyone knows about that fateful night. The Dutchman only remembers a struggle that made his rifle go off, then waking up in a police cell. Roel Goosen, a fortune seeker in Africa, was charged with murdering a Zambian woman who was on her way to a prayer service. Two witnesses claimed they saw a white man with a rifle, and despite the lack of any hard evidence, Goosen was found guilty. The court has rejected any form of appeal, so only diplomacy and a pardon at the highest level can save him now. The West Lusaka Man is the thrilling and harrowing account of the attempts that Goosen's parents have subsequently made to get their son released. The documentary doesn't stop at only a reconstruction of a crime and the painful struggle to negotiate jurisprudence in a foreign and remote country. While letters and photographs bring Roel, who cannot be filmed inside the prison, very close, the director also poses daring questions about the prisoner to people who know him well. Do they believe that Roel Goosen is capable of killing another human being?