First two acts are one of
my favorite dark comedies
of the year -- third act is one
of the most moving tragedies
of '17, and the final few scenes
are spectacularly surreal; the
social satire that 2017 needed.

An extremely confident debut from Rungano Nyoni full of wonder, humour, reflection and tragedy. The film looks wonderful too and cinematographer, David Gallego (Embrace of the Serpent), really makes the most of the sparse Zambian landscape. It cleverly plays with traditional gender politics (and not entirely focused on women) to open discussion about respectability and marriage, lineage and how those accused of witchcraft are so easily discarded and branded for life, based on little more than a hunch. All done without resorting to cliched African poverty porn. This is a director to keep on eye on if this is anything to go by. Highly recommend.

Powerful imagery, with purposeful camera work, helps define the visual narrative of the film. The film is bleak, but the cinematography cuts deep into the gloomy subject matter, bringing out its abstract beauty. It really is a good film on a technical level and the performances are good, but bringing in my personal feelings, it wasn’t an easy watch. It’s hard to know what’s happening for a lot of it.   

I’m really happy I watched it, but I don’t think I’ll ever revisit it.

if you need me i'll be in my room writing an essay on the representation of women through witchcraft in cinema and comparing this beautiful yet heartbreaking little work of art to the glorious Suspiria (2018) and The Witch (2015) 🤓

You are now becoming civil witches.

I Am Not a Witch's impeccable composition and brilliantly sparse soundtrack help the film maintain its delicate balance between tragedy and comedy, though it certainly opts for the former toward the end.

Definitely worth a watch.

I Am Not A Witch constructs a narrative with impressionist obfuscation, which is to say, through its structure, this is as confounding as our character is confused. Without reason and clarity, this puts into combat chance and coincidence with corruption and superstitious oppression by using an accusation of witchcraft to highlight those elements of nature - human nature, and the nature of the unfolding of life - that appear simultaneously consciously sadistic and benevolently bitter. It is hard to put into words the intent of this film beyond this, but it is not hard to recommend it.

The first feature film I saw in my first ever film class. I remember liking the movie, Shula’s actress was great here, and the cinematography along with the soundtrack was gorgeous. Although, I feel bad, because I remember wanting to go home about 40 minutes in. The professor played the movie extremely late in the class, that the movie had gone over an hour of the time intended for the class. In no way is that the film’s fault, but I do blame my film professor. Subsequently, he never played the movie earlier, so we could leave within the intended class hours! I always had drive back home, which is about 45 minutes, around 9:40 p.m.

Funny satire that displays through a speechless character all they want to say. A critic of religious beliefs with humor, a critic of government regulations and a whole system that almost seems to work by pure nonsense. Of course with a spark of what latin literature calls “magic realism” where all the characters live naturally with spells.

This film looks beautiful, sorry for me, that's it.

The entire world seems to absolutely love this film, but for me, I never really 'got it' and after about 20mins I had no interest in getting it because I was so, so bored.

This was really well done, my only regret is that I don't really understand a lot of the culture, so I know jokes were being made and that this was supposed to be funny, and it was sometimes, but I know a lot of it went over my head.

Quanto mais analisamos o ser humano, principalmente como indivíduo social, mais temos a certeza absoluta de seu poder cognitivo de engessar sinapses (as próprias e dos outros), influenciadas pela repetição massificada das crendices populares do meio em que se vive. É o comodismo do acreditar, que desencadeia uma tranquilidade propositadamente limitadora a fim de proteger de uma possível quebra do equilíbrio do pensar.

Crítica completa por Fabricio Duque em: vertentesdocinema.com/eu-nao-sou-uma-bruxa-critica/

Video essay coming soon. Written Nov 18, 2018.

Wowowow. There's not many films that take me out every couple of minutes to say to myself "holy shit, this is so good". I don't think I've ever seen a film set in/created by Zambians and what a film to start me off.

It's a satire about witchcraft, delving into the ways women are ostracised, abused, and taken advantage of for profit. Not surprising that one of her favourite directors is Yorgos Lanthimos (of THE LOBSTER and KILLING OF A SACRED DEER).

The lead is played effortless by a 9 year old girl, and the rest of the cast is full of incredible non-professional actors who instill reality with every eye movement and line of dialogue. The direction and writing is so on point that I was in awe of Rungano Nyoni's skill the whole runtime.