WATCH-AFRICA: SCREENING OF I AM NOT A WITCH + Q&A WITH RUNGANO NYONI – DIRECTOR OF THE FILM
Dir: Rungano Nyoni
Zambia/UK/France/2017/90 mins/ English
Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. 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.
“Nyoni’s bold fusion of folklore, social comment, magical realism and her own family heritage could even translate into breakout word-of-mouth success akin to the tonally similar Beasts of the Southern Wild”The Hollywood Reporter
Pontio Arts Centre: 27th October from 2015 Book Tickets!