I Am Not a Witch

I can see why it won awards. This film hit me straight to the soul with Shula's story. I could not get enough of wanting to know all these people, especially the witches. Although the film leaves you wanting more, It does a beautiful job in fulfilling you with its shots and emotional cuts.

From a western point of view, this is a disturbing indictment of the way some will treat the least in society, because of groundless accusations, and of the ways others seek to exploit the least in society for profit. I do not pretend to understand Zambian spiritual traditions, but they are not at issue here; the issues here are people's readiness to mistrust, accuse, and abuse those who are unable to defend themselves.

«I Am Not a Witch» is the third film I have recently watched about the vicissitudes of a little girl, after the American movie «Beasts of the Southern Wild» (2012) and the Philippine production «Birdshot» (2016). All three are satisfactory products, with marked cultural and anthropological components; as well as fascinating and revealing contributions to the female children's universe in film, which has been dominated by the image of Shirley Temple and her variants for many years. The marginal African-American Hushpuppy, the Filipino peasant Maya and, now, the Zambian little witch Shula are victims without knowing it and each film is a journey that, for their short years, reveals their position in the world. The three works are those to which we frequently turn our backs; and they are as fascinating or more ravishing than the highest flight of L.A. superheroes. Here what flies as high as can be is the originality and creativity of the filmmakers. Throughout their stories, girls confront situations in their environments dominated by violence, injustice and deprivation. Like Maya, Shula does not go to school and, of the three little girls, she is the only one who has nobody, family or friends: she has arrived alone in a town and the easiest way to get rid of her is to accuse her of being a witch. Shula is sent to a witch camp, but a government official sees her salability potential as a "poor little girl" and decides to capitalize on her "sorceress" image and use it in trials, rites against drought, and marketing eggs on television! Deprived of all her rights, Shula is stigmatized in a way of which there is little knowledge, especially of the meaning of sorcery and witchcraft in African cultures. Although the camps of women accused of witches, who carry out work in the fields, have been denounced, the media do not disclose that, in this century, African children have become one of the main targets of accusations of witchcraft, with the consequent attacks, beatings and even death. The film maintains a fair balance between drama and magical realism (no terror, if you expected that), through a development that recounts linearly, but with shocks, surprises, without that forced 'flow', so typical of movies that disguise the process of creation and try to hide that fact that we are watching a construction, not reality. The film has beautiful cinematography by David Gallego (the same cinematographer of «Violencia», «Embrace of the Serpent» and «Summer Birds») and original art direction by Nathan Parker: you have to see how witches are held by cords that come out of reels mounted on the truck that takes them to work in a farm... it does look like a parade float in a Rio de Janeiro carnival. The entire cast is effective and, above all, it was directed by an bright woman from Zambia and raised in Wales, named Rungano Nyoni, who was given her name by her parents because in a Zimbabwean language, "Rungano" means 'storyteller'. The prophecy was fulfilled. It appears that the Los Angeles Film Academy is not interested in "ethnic girls" (unless they are of Irish, Hebrew,Scandinavian, or little monsters of the Disney factory ...) Proposed as the official film to represent the UK in the Oscar feast, «I Am Not a Witch» was ignored, as happened before to the Philippine «Birdshot» and «Beasts of the Southern Wild». But don't let that drive you away. «I Am Not a Witch» is funny, it is fresh, it is contemporary, it is tragic, and it has 16 international awards in its summary.

I enjoyed this film more than I expected to. Its sound direction was on point, cinematography was well executed, and ambiguity was just right. I Am Not a Witch allows the audience to join Shula in dwelling on the short- and long-term costs of accusations, hopelessness in the life of the condemned, and just how much people will use you. Along the way, there'll be laughter, sadness, and tears. By the end of the film, I was left questioning the matter of whether or not the females of the penal colony were actually witches, and if so then which ones. Side Note: I didn't see this as a "satiric feminist fairy-tale."

This is a striking, haunting, sometimes funny and ultimately moving debut film from Welsh-Zambian writer-director Rungano Nyoni. A young girl finds herself accused of being the witch who caused a woman to drop her pale of water; as a result she finds herself living with other so-called witches, all older women. She, like all of them, has a giant bobbin of white ribbon attached to her wherever she goes - this controls all the accused, having been told they will turn into a goat should they break it and try to free themselves. A government minister knows a money-maker when he sees one, and uses the young girl as a kind of travelling show, predicting rain and identifying accused thieves. Part satire, part feminist critique of patriarchy, part reflection on childhood, this film is never polemical but no less the powerful for it. The brilliant cinematography reminded me of 12 Years A Slave; though a very different film, this film shares the Oscar winner's long, lingering shots asking us - especially the white, Western observer, just what it is we are waiting or expecting to see. White characters are few and far between, and when they do surface, they're either bemused or excruciatingly patronising. The film feels careful and real; the director spent time in Ghana, living in official 'witch camps'; it's odd to discover, then, that the white ribbons are her own invention. They do make for some striking visual statements against the greys and browns of the landscape, but they may be a visual metaphor too far. They play a key role in the film's abrupt, potentially ambiguous ending which may frustrate or move in equal measure, a clever use of sound over the closing shot and credits emphasising that this is no rationalist critique of African superstition. There is more - much more - to come from this young film-maker, which makes such a startling and confident debut all the more exciting, sacrificing little in tone, vision or aesthetic. As she does so, she runs the risk fo alienating the more casual Western viewer. But lauded at film festivals, she is clearly already an important and emerging voice with a flair for weaving gentle humour alongside subtle power.

I felt the need to post a review about this film. It was a moving and tragic film. It was far from comic and I found no part of this movie to be funny to any degree. I lived in Sub-Saharan Africa for several years. This film is nothing but tragic. There's no mention if it's a true story but I'd be willing to bet that it is. I very much look forward to seeing more movies from this talented producer.

This film blew my mind. I don't understand people who thought it was a comedy. To me, this was such a tragic film showing the treatment of girls and women in Africa and the abuses of power. The whole concept of witches was so bizarre but clearly just a way for people to take advantage of these women. They were basically taken prisoners and made slaves of the state! The fact that tourists were taken to see the witches and pay to see them was just mind-boggling, plus the fact that they were used to decide who was guilty of crimes... I was in shock for most of the film. The little girl was clearly traumatized from the start and became more and more traumatized as she was used for other people's purposes rather than going to school where she belonged. All the actresses were amazing. I liked how some of the adults tried to take care of the little girl to the best of their ability.