I Am Not a Witch

Last updated

I Am Not a Witch
I Am Not a Witch.png
British release poster
Directed by Rungano Nyoni
Written byRungano Nyoni
Produced byJuliette Grandmont
Emily Morgan
StarringMaggie Mulubwa
CinematographyDavid Gallego
Edited byGeorge Cragg
Yann Dedet
Thibault Hague
Music byMatthew James Kelly
Distributed by Artificial Eye (United Kingdom)
Release dates
  • 25 May 2017 (2017-05-25)(Cannes)
  • 20 October 2017 (2017-10-20)(UK)
Running time
93 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
Germany
Zambia
LanguagesEnglish
Bemba
Nyanja
Box office$152,960 [1]

I Am Not a Witch is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written and directed by Rungano Nyoni in her feature debut film. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Nyoni and producer Emily Morgan at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. [2] [3] [4] It was selected as the British entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. [5] [6]

Contents

Plot

A serious little girl shows up in a village and it is quickly decided she is a witch. When she refuses to answer questions confirming or denying she is a witch, she is taken to a witch doctor who sacrifices a chicken to determine whether she is a witch or not. Believing she is a witch, the local authorities take her to a small camp made up of elderly witches, each of whom is tied to their own large spool of white ribbon. The girl is restrained with a ribbon like the other witches and forced into labour. One of the elder witches names her Shula.

Shula is taken away to adjudicate at a trial where an elderly man has claimed that money has been stolen from him. When the suspects are lined up Shula does not know which one is the thief and calls the other witches who give her contradictory advice on how to catch the thief. Nevertheless, Shula is able to correctly guess who the thief is and is rewarded for it. A senior government employee and his wife continue to exploit other people's belief that Shula is a witch by asking her to perform tasks like summoning rainfall. Shula is gradually exposed to what the wider community thinks of witches and is occasionally threatened with violence.

After an appearance on a chat show, where a caller asks why she is not in school, she is sent to a school, where the other pupils, like Shula, are those that have been deemed unacceptable for mainstream schools. A witch doctor and a farmer drag her away from the school by her ribbon and ask her to make it rain. She performs a rain dance and exhausts herself trying to produce results. That evening the women back at camp ask her why she is unhappy and in response she says that she wishes she had opted to become a goat. When the women are asleep she's seen leaving the tent and gathering her ribbon to its end.

In the morning two men dump a body in the field and the 'witches' are seen mourning for Shula, although it's ambiguous how she died or whether it is her body. As the women celebrate her death it begins to rain. The truck that carries the women around is shown to be empty, and the ribbons that held them hostage are flying free.

Cast

Production

Writer-director Rungano Nyoni was inspired by actual stories of witchcraft accusations in Zambia. In her research for the film, she traveled to Ghana and spent time in a real witch camp, observing their daily life and rituals. [7] [8]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. [9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [10]

Mark Kermode from The Observer gave the film four out of five stars, praising Nyoni's work, David Gallego's cinematography and Mulubwa's performance, and wrote: "Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature, the story of a girl in Zambia accused of witchcraft, is comic, tragic – and captivatingly beautiful" [7] Jessica Kiang from Variety , also praised Gallego’s cinematography, and stated: "Nyoni’s approach may itself be a little too chaotic, and a little too oblique to be fully comprehensible (in particular her counterpointing music cues can overreach, and some of the narrative ellipses confuse). But in the investigation of the dichotomies of ancient and modern, familiar and alien, prosaic and mystical, she clearly has a great deal she wants to say, and now, thanks to this invigorating, intriguing and provocative debut, she has a whole career ahead of her in which to say it". [11]

Anna Smith, writing for Time Out , gave I Am Not a Witch four out of five stars, stating: "impressively, debut writer-director Rungano Nyoni makes this heady mix work". [12] Stephen Dalton from The Hollywood Reporter called the film: "A winningly original and stylistically fresh debut feature from the young Zambia-born Welsh director Rungano Nyoni, I Am Not a Witch is one of the more buzzy premieres screening in the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes. 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". [13]

Accolades

I Am Not a Witch gathered several wins and nominations in many important film festivals and film awards, including a win at the 71st British Academy Film Awards for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer and 10 nominations and three wins at the British Independent Film Awards 2017. [14] It won Feature Fiction award at the 2017 Adelaide Film Festival. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Huppert</span> French actress (b. 1953)

Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of austere and morally ambiguous women, she is considered one of the preeminent actresses of her generation. Huppert is the most nominated actress at the César Awards with 16 overall and 2 wins and is also the recipient of several accolades, including five Lumières Awards, a BAFTA Award, three European Film Awards, two Berlin International Film Festival, three Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival honors, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her second on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audrey Tautou</span> French actress and model

Audrey Justine Tautou is a French actress. She made her acting debut at age 18 on television, and her feature film debut in Venus Beauty Institute (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hirokazu Kore-eda</span> Japanese filmmaker

Hirokazu Kore-eda is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He began his career in television and has since directed more than a dozen feature films, including Nobody Knows (2004), Still Walking (2008), and After the Storm (2016). He won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Like Father, Like Son and won the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilda Swinton</span> British actress

Katherine Matilda Swinton is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynne Ramsay</span> Scottish filmmaker

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), and You Were Never Really Here (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Africa</span> History and present of cinema in Africa

Cinema of Africa covers both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary cinematic technology in use. During the colonial era, African life was shown only by the work of white, colonial, Western filmmakers, who depicted Africans in a negative fashion, as exotic "others". As there are more than 50 countries with audiovisual traditions, there is no one single 'African cinema'. Both historically and culturally, there are major regional differences between North African and sub-Saharan cinemas, and between the cinemas of different countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Arnold</span> English film director and actor

Andrea Arnold, OBE is an English filmmaker and former actor. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), and American Honey (2016), all of which have won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Arnold has also directed four episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent, as well as all seven episodes of the second season of the HBO series Big Little Lies. Her documentary Cow premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and played at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Gharavi</span> Film director, screenwriter, producer

Tina Gharavi is an Iranian-born British BAFTA and Sundance nominated artist, director and screenwriter.

<i>I Killed My Mother</i> 2009 film by Xavier Dolan

I Killed My Mother is a 2009 Canadian drama film written, directed, produced by and starring Xavier Dolan, in his directorial debut. Loosely autobiographical, it follows the complicated relationship between a young man Hubert Minel (Dolan) and his mother. The film attracted international press attention when it won three awards from the Director's Fortnight program at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. After being shown, the film received a standing ovation. It was shown in 12 cinemas in Quebec and 60 in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Rohrwacher</span> Italian film director

Alice Rohrwacher is an Italian film director, editor and screenwriter. She made her directorial debut with Heavenly Body (2011). She has since directed notable films such as The Wonders (2014), Happy as Lazzaro (2018), which received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay, and La chimera (2023). Her short Le pupille (2022) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deniz Gamze Ergüven</span> Turkish-French film director

Deniz Gamze Ergüven is a Turkish-French film director best known for her debut feature film Mustang.

<i>Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts</i> 2017 Indonesian film

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a 2017 Indonesian thriller film directed by Mouly Surya based on a story conceived by Garin Nugroho and a screenplay co-written by Surya and Rama Adi. The film's Western style, its feminist tone, and rural Indonesian setting led to the term "satay Western" being coined following its world premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Piano is an independent film production and distribution company based in Mexico City, started in 2011 by Julio Chavezmontes and Sebastián Hofmann as a platform for innovative filmmakers. It specializes in film production, finance, distribution, and international coproductions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julio Chavezmontes</span>

Julio Chavezmontes is a renowned Mexican producer and screenwriter, winner of the Best Screenplay award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and twice nominated for the AMACC Ariel Award. He has produced more than 20 films, many of which have been screened at the world's leading film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto, among others. His productions have received multiple accolades, most recently the Best Director Award (“Annette”) and the Jury Prize (“Memoria”) at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

The 20th British Independent Film Awards nominations were announced on 1 November 2017.

Rungano Nyoni is a Zambian-Welsh director and screenwriter. She is known for the film I Am Not a Witch, which she wrote and directed. The film won Nyoni the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut in 2018 and has also garnered accolades from international film festivals. Her 2009 film, The List, won the Welsh BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.

Jessie Chisi is a Zambian film director and screenwriter.

Cristina Gallego is a Colombian producer, writer and director.

Becky Ngoma, is a Zambian actress and writer. A filmmaker, Mwape started his career as an actor and is best known for the roles in Mwansa the Great, I Am Not a Witch and Temzu Town. Apart from acting, she is also a director and producer.

References

  1. ↑ "I am Not a Witch (2017)". The Numbers . Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  2. ↑ "Fortnight 2017: The 49th Directors' Fortnight Selection". Directors' Fortnight. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Keslassy, Elsa (19 April 2016). "Cannes: Juliette Binoche-Gerard Depardieu Drama to Kick Off Directors Fortnight". Variety . Penske Business Media . Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  4. ↑ "Rungano Nyoni 'outstanding debut' Bafta for I Am Not A Witch". BBC News. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. ↑ "I Am Not a Witch, Selected as U.K.'s Entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards". Broadway World. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Mitchell, Robert (22 August 2018). "Oscars: U.K. Selects BAFTA Winner 'I Am Not a Witch' as Foreign-Language Entry". Variety . Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  7. 1 2 Kermode, Mark (22 October 2017). "I Am Not a Witch review – magical surrealism". The Observer . Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  8. ↑ Aftab, Kaleem (18 October 2017). "I Am Not a Witch director on the modern persecution of witches in Zambia and Ghana". The Independent . Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "I Am Not a Witch (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  10. ↑ "I Am Not a Witch". Metacritic . Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  11. ↑ Kiang, Jessica (26 May 2017). "Cannes Film Review: 'I Am Not a Witch'". Variety . Penske Business Media . Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  12. ↑ Smith, Anna (17 October 2017). "I Am Not a Witch". Time Out London . Time Out Group. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  13. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (25 May 2017). "'I Am Not a Witch': Film Review - Cannes 2017". The Hollywood Reporter . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  14. ↑ Clarke, Stewart (1 November 2017). "'Lady Macbeth' Tops Nominations for British Independent Film Awards". Variety . Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "Feature Fiction Award". Adelaide Film Festival. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.