An astonishing feature debut from writer-director Rungano Nyoni, I Am Not A Witch has so much underpinning it that it feels as if you should gather up a large selection of small and large tools before digging in for a full excavation. I've nowhere else to go with that archeological dig analogy, but let's just remember that there are layers and layers to this while I surmise the story on a surface level.
It's all about a young girl who appears in a Zambian community, is accused of being a witch, doesn't confirm or deny that status, and ends up housed in a camp full of witches. These women are all tethered to posts by ribbons, and they are used as both hard workers and tourist attractions. The girl is named Shula and, while she is paraded around by a government official who believes that she really does have some power, she starts to resent being viewed, for better or worse, as a witch.
Although witchcraft is placed at the front and centre of this movie, from the title to the starting point of the plot, it's not actually about that. I Am Not A Witch is perhaps summed up by the moment in which the young lead is told to stay in a small hut and make a choice, to join the witches or run off (like a goat, that's how it is described to her . . . be a witch or be a goat). Once deciding to join the witches, Shula soon realises that her path through life seems to have now been set, all based on a time when she wasn't even fully aware of the repercussions of her decision.
Using what I am going to assume is a cast made up of largely non-professionals, considering how many people credited for acting in the movie have no other movies listed, Nyoni moves her camera between one crucial moment to the next, which allows for the supporting cast to leave the film to be carried by the extraordinary talent of young Maggie Mulubwa (in the role of Shula). Every scene is a blow, small or large, to the character of a young woman who hasn't had time to think about her future yet. Even a "success" ends up simply ensuring that her place in society is cemented in place, a small pigeonhole giving her no room in which to potentially spread her wings.
As well as Mulubwa, Henry B. J. Phiri gives a great performance, portraying an official who convinces himself that he is working to help women that are actually just being stifled, and enslaved. Nancy Murilo is also very good, a woman trying to help steer a young girl in what she sees as the right direction for her, and Margaret Spinella plays someone who has a different approach, but with the same good intentions.
Moving expertly between moments of wry amusement (the opening sequence explains how the witches are attached to the ribbons to stop them from flying away) and heart-breaking despair, I Am Not A Witch is a riveting and important film. It ultimately makes no difference whether or not any of the women shown onscreen are witches. The important thing is how they are viewed and defined by others. Some may accept that, some may fight against it, but the film shows that labels can be attached to people, but especially women, at any moment. And sometimes those labels last an entire lifetime.
10/10
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