I Am Not a Witch (2017)
There's a scene early in Rungano Nyoni's I Am Not a Witch where a young girl is accused of witchcraft for reasons so flimsy, so breathtakingly absurd, that you'd almost laugh if the consequences weren't so horrifying. That collision of the ridiculous and the genuinely grim is exactly what this film is, and it lodges itself in your brain like a splinter you can't quite reach.
The girl is Shula, played by newcomer Maggie Mulubwa with a quiet, devastating naturalism that I honestly wasn't prepared for. She's deemed a witch by her village on the flimsiest of pretexts and condemned to a government-run "witch camp", where she's tethered to a long white ribbon and put to work performing menial tasks for the entertainment of tourists and the convenience of local officials. It's a premise that feels almost allegorical, almost Kafkaesque, and yet Nyoni is shining a light on a practice that is absolutely real and absolutely current. That's the gut-punch the film lands before it's even got going properly.
What strikes me most is how Nyoni refuses to let this become misery tourism. There's a sharp, almost savage wit running through the whole thing. The bureaucratic indifference of the officials, the way Shula is carted around as a kind of reluctant celebrity, the sheer banality of the exploitation on display, it's all drawn with a satirical pen that keeps you off-balance. You find yourself laughing, then feeling faintly guilty for it, then laughing again. That tonal tightrope is genuinely difficult to walk and Nyoni walks it with real confidence for a debut feature.
I kept thinking about how this compares to other films dealing with young women ground down by systems built to use them. I found Mustang doing something similar in a very different cultural context, trapping girls inside structures that present themselves as protective while being anything but. And if you want a documentary companion piece to this one, Jaha's Promise covers similarly difficult terrain around the real lives of women caught in deeply entrenched, harmful traditions. Both are worth your time.
Back to Mulubwa, though, because I can't overstate what she does here. Shula barely speaks. She watches. She endures. And through that watchful silence, Mulubwa communicates an entire interior world of grief, confusion and stubborn dignity. She carries the film completely, and the fact that it's apparently her first screen role makes it all the more remarkable. Some of the supporting cast around her is a bit stiff, it has to be said, and there are moments where the film feels slightly uneven. But Mulubwa is so consistently compelling that she papers over those cracks almost entirely.
The ending is where everything lands with full force. I won't say what happens, but Nyoni earns the tragedy she delivers. Just when you're hoping for Shula, just when it feels like maybe, maybe there's a way out, the film reminds you exactly what kind of story it's been telling all along. It hit me right in the chest and I sat with it for a while afterwards.
Three and a half stars.
I Am Not a Witch is a cracking, socially vital piece of work. It's funny and furious and deeply sad in equal measure, and Maggie Mulubwa's performance alone makes it essential viewing. See it.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2026-06-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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