I Am Not a Witch (2017)
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I Am Not a Witch Movie Review
I Am Not a Witch is a 2017 Zambian drama film directed by Rungano Nyoni. It’s such a good glimpse into this culture’s worst tendencies.
Shula is the first child taken to a travelling witch camp, where she is told that should she cut the ribbon and attempt to escape, she will be cursed and transformed into a goat. As the director herself stated, this film isn’t supposed to present utter realism, but a bit of an exaggerated version of reality. And in that way, it succeeds widely.
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Why would many find its humor problematic is beyond me. I found it quite good and easily the best part of this film as the director realizes the foolishness of this type of belief and she suitably makes fun of it without ever sacrificing the dramatic heft of the story and its tragedy.
The movie mixes tragedy and comedy mostly remarkably well, though I personally wanted more emotional levity from it. But there was a lot of it, nonetheless, especially in the eyes of the kid which are so sad that it’s heartbreaking to witness.
I Am Not a Witch benefits from solid acting across the board and Rungano Nyoni’s direction is excellent. This is her feature debut, and I hope she gets more work in the future having in mind that her directing here is confident, strong and at times even quite impressive.
What bothered me here is its attention to detail. It’s extensive, but maybe to a fault as the movie could become way too concerned with some rituals and silly affairs of judging and similar sequences. Those are all fun, but some of them are overly extended in terms of runtime and are slower in pace.
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But the dialogue is pretty good and sparingly used, the humor is terrific and the cinematography and costume as well as production design are all excellent. I just wish it was more engaging as a whole, but it still remains a very good African film that is hopefully going to bring Zambia to the world cinematic map.
I Am Not a Witch lacks focus and it should have been better paced, but it’s very well directed by Rungano Nyoni, it’s so well shot and it offers a great glimpse into the worst tendencies of African culture. The movie’s at its best when mixing comedy and tragedy as it is both very heartbreaking and also quite amusing at times.
