I AM NOT A WITCH (12A)
★★★

ZAMBIAN-BORN, Welsh-raised director Rungano Nyoni makes a striking, if overly enigmatic, feature directorial debut that explores modern day persecution of witches in Zambia.

Nine-year-old Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) is a shy and subdued orphan living in a small village near the Zambian capital of Lusaka. After a banal incident in which a women trips and spills water in front of her, Shula finds herself standing accused of being a witch.

Tales of her supposed witchcraft are embellished by other locals with stories of how she affected them, including a man who claims she cut off his arm with an axe – his arm allegedly reattached itself in the interim.

When Shula refuses to deny outright that she’s a witch, she is transferred to a camp full of elderly, similarly accused women. To prevent her from fleeing she is anchored to a heavy spool by a length of white ribbon that’s attached to her back. She is told that if she cuts the ribbon she will turn into a goat.

It’s an odd concoction of a film that swirls together deadpan absurdism, arthouse sensibilities and raw explorations of everything from the prejudice against and subjugation of women in Zambian society to a population’s inherent adherence to beliefs and the ruling of superstition being exploited for personal gain.

As well as being labelled and held against her will, Shula also finds herself under the “care” of inept police officer Mr Banda (a fantastically snake-like Henry BJ Phiri) who spots an opportunity to make money out of her by playing up her supposed witch identity, using her to pick out criminals from line-ups or putting her on national TV talk shows. We are invited to be equally fascinated and outraged by Shula’s treatment, helped in no small part by a captivatingly internalised central performance by first-timer Mulubwa.

It’s undoubtedly an arresting first feature, made with confidence and with something genuine to say. But it’s also a bit too cryptic for its own good; there’s a languidness that needlessly protracts the drama, a lack of clear answers that can be frustrating and a preoccupation with overly fancy filmmaking methods that sometimes distracts from the inherent power of its messages. A clearer sense of storytelling would have elevated it to something really special.

Still, it’s hard not to be drawn in by the boldness of Nyoni’s directorial touch. Such a tangible sense of individual filmmaking personality and assuredness should be applauded. Flaws and all, she’s made a wholly original first feature and I’m excited to see what she does next.