This film is currently unavailable

I Am Not a Witch
Welsh-raised, Zambian-born Rungano Nyoni delivers a dazzling debut with this darkly satirical fairy tale about a little girl accused of being a witch.
Director: Rungano Nyoni
Overview
In a Zambian village Shula, a small, silent girl with big eyes, is accused of being a witch. Her choice: join a travelling witch camp or become a goat. Thus begins Zambian-born, Wales-raised Rungano Nyoni’s dazzling and audacious satirical fairy tale. Choosing to join the troop, Shula (a startlingly impressive Margaret Mulubwa) is placed onto a flatbed truck alongside witches with long ribbons streaming down their backs, attached to spindles which ensure their captivity. Shula’s big eyes remain inscrutably calm, even when she is subjected to the bizarre absurdities of being a tourist attraction in a travelling freak-show.
Nyoni explodes onto the global stage with this thrilling debut and its exhilaratingly cacophonous array of cultural influences. Rooted in an attack on a specific tradition – witch camps – this allegorical tale is also a blistering critique of attitudes to women. And if the details are specific to Africa, its themes are globally resonant.
Related

Memoir of a Snail Memoir of a Snail
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 95 mins Director: Adam Elliot
Adam Elliot’s Oscar-nominated tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia is a funny and moving stop-motion triumph.

Santosh Santosh
Drama 2023 128 mins Director: Sandhya Suri
A housewife-turned-cop is sucked into a high-profile case that has polarised the local community in this taut, north India-set thriller.

Night Games Night Games
Drama 1966 105 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
In Mai Zetterling’s scathing rebuke of European entitlement, a man returns to his childhood home and confronts his repressed memories and desire.

Loving Couples Loving Couples
Drama 1964 118 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three expectant mothers on a maternity ward recall their personal and sexual experiences in Mai Zetterling’s bold, subversive debut.

The Girls The Girls
Drama 1968 100 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three stage actresses starring in Aristophanes’ classic play Lysistrata start to draw parallels with their own lives in Mai Zetterling’s feminist comedy.

Pacifiction Pacifiction
Drama 2022 165 mins Director: Albert Serra
Albert Serra’s hypnotic Palme d'Or-nominated drama about the greed and hypocrisy of colonial power in Tahiti.

Daughters of the Dust Daughters of the Dust
Drama 1991 112 mins Director: Julie Dash
Dash’s groundbreaking Daughters of the Dust remains urgent and poetic and continues to resonate, inspiring Beyoncé’s iconic visual album Lemonade.

Burning an Illusion Burning an Illusion
Drama 1982 102 mins Director: Menelik Shabazz
Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.

Papicha Papicha
Drama 2019 108 mins Director: Mounia Meddour
As the Algerian Civil War unfolds, a group of determined young women come face to face with a new, dangerous reality.

I Am Samuel I Am Samuel
Documentary 2021 68 mins Director: Pete Murimi
Kenyan couple Samuel and Alex remain committed to each other despite the danger and hardship facing them in Peter Murimi’s moving documentary portrait.

Casablanca Beats Casablanca Beats
Drama 2021 102 mins Director: Nabil Ayouch
Palme d'Or nominated film about a former rapper who takes a teaching job at a cultural centre in a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca.

Losing Ground Losing Ground
Drama 1982 86 mins Director: Kathleen Collins
A philosophy professor and an artist reach a crisis point in their marriage, in Kathleen Collins’ groundbreaking masterpiece.

Memoir of a Snail Memoir of a Snail
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 95 mins Director: Adam Elliot
Adam Elliot’s Oscar-nominated tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia is a funny and moving stop-motion triumph.

The Outcasts The Outcasts
Fantasy 1982 106 mins Director: Robert Wynne-Simmons
Haunting Irish folk-horror, from the writer of The Blood on Satan’s Claw, about an introverted farm girl suspected of witchcraft.

Santosh Santosh
Drama 2023 128 mins Director: Sandhya Suri
A housewife-turned-cop is sucked into a high-profile case that has polarised the local community in this taut, north India-set thriller.

Night Games Night Games
Drama 1966 105 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
In Mai Zetterling’s scathing rebuke of European entitlement, a man returns to his childhood home and confronts his repressed memories and desire.

Loving Couples Loving Couples
Drama 1964 118 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three expectant mothers on a maternity ward recall their personal and sexual experiences in Mai Zetterling’s bold, subversive debut.

The Girls The Girls
Drama 1968 100 mins Director: Mai Zetterling
Three stage actresses starring in Aristophanes’ classic play Lysistrata start to draw parallels with their own lives in Mai Zetterling’s feminist comedy.