Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. Read more …
After a short trial she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp in the middle of a desert. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches in a large tree. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she'll be cursed and transformed into a goat.
Young Margaret Mulubwa is a compelling presence in Rungano Nyoni's striking but somewhat cryptic debut.
For all its satirical elements, I Am Not A Witch retains an air of mystery. There is also considerable pathos in the plight of its young heroine, who seems to have no say at all in how she lives her own life.
Exhilarating, humorous yet still disturbing.
Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature, the story of a girl in Zambia accused of witchcraft, is comic, tragic – and captivatingly beautiful.
Her ordeal is depicted with a combination of striking images, social satire and the potent sense of a youngster confronting the injustices and uncertainty of the adult world.
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