I Am Not a Witch

The latest iteration of Akojo Film Collective’s recurring African Cinema Now! series is titled The Witch at the Edge of the Screen and platforms movies in which African women, often vilified and persecuted, turn the tables on their oppressors.

Rungano Nyoni crafts a satiric feminist fairy-tale set in present-day Zambia. When 9-year old orphan Shula is accused of witchcraft, she is exiled to a witch camp run by Mr. Banda, a corrupt and inept government official. Tied to the ground by a white ribbon, Shula is told that she will turn into a goat if she tries to escape. As the only child witch, Shula quickly becomes a local star and the adults around her exploit her supposed powers for financial gain. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life in the camp, or take a risk for freedom.

Curatorial note: “Nyoni’s feminist satire takes on the location of the witch camp as a site of disenfranchisement through the often comedic yet harrowing experiences faced by a child accused of witchcraft. When the community turns against her and she is cast into a camp of witches, we are able to follow a deep line of inquiry that opens up the world of witch accusations and the weight and mark it leaves on the lives of women affected.” Akojo Film Collective

Possibly the year’s most audacious film debut, I Am Not A Witch has won numerous awards, including Britain’s BAFTA for best first feature, and to see it is to understand why… Written and directed by Zambian-born, Wales-raised Rungano Nyoni, this smart and savage satire is impressive for the way it joins a dramatically involving story with a Swiftian tale of human society in general and Africa culture and customs in particular… Beguiling… wickedly smart.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

For all its factual grounding, I Am Not a Witch is also a work of fairytale invention, unravelling the threads of its quasi-mythical narrative with anarchic aplomb… Margaret Mulubwa is a mesmerising screen presence, her stoical countenance broken occasionally by a radiant smile that lights up the landscape.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Beautiful and unsettling…It is a remarkable, strange and politically potent first film.

Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post