A fable-like story about a young African girl banished from her village for alleged witchcraft, it blends deadpan humor with light surrealism, vivid visuals and left-field musical choices. Last modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 19.49 EDT. At the center of “I Am Not A Witch” is Maggie Mulubwa, who says very little yet manages to convey multitudes with her face and her eyes. The feature debut of the Zambia-born, Wales-raised filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, I Am Not a Witch is a visually striking, emotionally resonant satire of a surprising form of sexism that still exists in certain parts of the world: witch camps. Nyoni’s title articulates her uncompromising, feminist stance, and her characterizations of Mr. Banda and the male villagers explain how patriarchy plays out in Zambia, but it is in her sublime direction—lengthy close-ups, clever tableaux and skillful scoring—that the writer-director accomplishes a social critique so cinematic as to defy description. John Bleasdale | @drjonty These images are hauntingly composed and dreamily sustained, the length of the shots heightening comedy and tragedy alike, with heartbreaking results. I Am Not a Witch is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written and directed by Rungano Nyoni in her feature debut film. A left-field gem in a mostly underwhelming Cannes program, I Am Not a Witch feels like the birth of a significant new screen voice. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches in a large tree. This is one of those films where you will end up confused. Soon, Shula is being paraded around local courts and TV stations, dispensing divine justice and hawking magical eggs – all for the profit of her garrulous keeper. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. After a short trial she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp in the middle of a desert. But while there’s novelty and promise to Nyoni’s little-girl-trapped tale, it tumbles into incoherence too early to merit endorsement. The whole movie is very loaded with symbolism and metaphors. It’s just a shame that in the last few scenes the viewers is left adrift among the symbolism, due to Nyoni’s sparse storytelling. It tells the story of a young girl, Shula, accused of witchcraft after a trivial mishap. This is a feat made more impressive by the fact that Nyoni gives us absolutely no backstory on Shula. Why, you ask. Well, for one you will not be certain of what is going on, or rather why things are going on. The phenomenon in Zambia relates not to a cackling Shakespearean witch, but a relatively innocuous kind. A startling movie, I Am Not a Witch is many things. Movie Review: “I Am Not a Witch” Posted on March 31, 2020 by Roger Moore All it takes is a silent stare from the child to startle the woman into tripping and dropping the water bucket balanced on her head. It's a satirical tale of an orphan young girl Shula in a remote village in an African country (Zambia?). Unsurprisingly opting to embrace her supernatural status, the young heroine of I Am Not a Witch is sent to the local “witch camp”, an enslaved tourist attraction. Introducing the audience to novel areas termed as witch camps, Writer-director Rungano Nyoni brings a fresh tale to the table. Nyoni was apparently inspired by real-life reports of witchcraft accusations in Zambia, and her research took her to Ghana, where she became the first foreigner to sleep in one of the world’s oldest “witch camps”. Movies from Zambia, especially one with a Welsh connection, are an exotic and rare thing. I am Not a Witch is the debut film from Zambian-born director Rungano Nyoni. In particular, the motif of women restrained from flight by vast lengths of white ribbon has a touch of Charles Perrault or the brothers Grimm – a magical-realist conceit that brilliantly dramatises the down-to-earth reality of the ties that bind. On a dusty road in remote rural Zambia, a woman carrying a large pail of water on her head, trips and falls. n a remote Zambian village, a nine-year-old girl (Margaret Mulubwa) is accused of being a witch and given a stark choice: to accept her supernatural branding and live a tethered life as a sorceress, or to cut her ties with local tradition and be transformed into a goat that may be killed and eaten for supper. La película cuenta con elementos reales y ficticios (como las cuerdas que todas las "brujas" tienen amarradas, para evitar que se conviertan en cabras), que sirve para representar la sumisión y resistencia a humillaciones por ignorancia de parte de todas estas personas. A unique look at the weird concept of witch camps and superstitious beliefs in Ghana and Zambia, movie ‘I am not a witch’ strives to use humor as the background theme. Daniel Goodwin reviews Rungano Nyoni’s Zambia set tale I Am Not a Witch - released in cinemas across the UK on October the 20th. I Am Not a Witch alternates between the distanced perspective necessary for irony to be effective and the intimacy needed to underline the tragedy of Shula’s situation, but the film never feels uneven. 500 Days Of Film Reviews Drama, I am not a Witch, Starring Maggie Mulubwa And B.J. The film is allowed to use an absurd humor that complements the already absurd idea, by which certain women are called witches. Review: I Am Not a Witch By Kelley Dong Subscribe to the magazine Within the gates of the “witch camp”—a settlement and labor camp of accused women—their bodies are bound to the land. She is faced with a choice of living as a witch in a … I Am Not a Witch Photograph: Kinology films/Soda Pictures. Having worked monochrome miracles on Ciro Guerra’s Amazon odyssey Embrace of the Serpent, cinematographer David Gallego here conjures a kaleidoscope of arresting tableaux: lonely Shula listening through a blue horn to the distant laughter of schoolchildren carried on the wind; a huge orange truck with women tied to outstretched reels, like some mobile fairground ride; the open mouth of a giant head looming towards us, while a frightened child huddles within. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she'll be cursed and transformed into a goat. Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. I Am Not a Witch review – magical surrealism Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature, the story of a girl in Zambia accused of witchcraft, is comic, … It’s also a satire, a tragedy and a comedy. Or in this case, the director. © 2021 METACRITIC, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. A startling movie, I Am Not a Witch is many things. It is available through Kanopy, the Library’s free video- streaming service. In Zambia, nine-year-old Shula's (Maggie Mulubwa) life is turned upside down when a government official exiles her to a witch camp with others like her to exploit her innocence for his own purposes. Early accusations of witchcraft have an almost Pythonesque quality, while a sequence in which a show trial is interrupted by a mobile phone is pure farce. ‘A face that can transform from innocence to defiance in an instant’: Margaret Mulubwa in I Am Not a Witch. Having been spellbound by her audacious first feature, I can’t wait to find out. La película cuenta con elementos reales y ficticios (como las cuerdas que todas las "brujas" tienen amarradas, para evitar que se conviertan en cabras), que sirve para representar la sumisión y resistencia a humillaciones por ignorancia de parte de todas estas personas. I Am Not a Witch review – straight-faced satire on Zambian witchcraft casts a spell. Review A professional ... the country’s official submission is the beautiful and unsettling parable of African womanhood “I Am Not a Witch… And, impressively, debut writer-director Rungano Nyoni makes this … Pero sin duda la mejor lograda es una secuencia de imágenes de un árbol por las diversas estaciones. Born in Zambia and part-raised in Wales, Nyoni first made international waves with such award-winning shorts as. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Notable Video Game Releases: New and Upcoming.