★ 7 / 10
There’s a lovely scene towards the end of
CinemaSerf
There’s a lovely scene towards the end of this film where the young “Shula” is secreted inside what looks like a papier-mâché prop from “Five Nights at…
There’s a lovely scene towards the end of this film where the young “Shula” is secreted inside what looks like a papier-mâché prop from “Five Nights at Freddy’s” where the tourists approach her to discover she is a witch! That rather sums up the approach taken to this eight year old girl by a Zambian society that can’t quite decide whether she is to be burned at the stake or to be commercially exploited by the state. Her predicament all starts when she is tried for witchcraft in a rural court and sentenced to be sent to a camp populated by loads of other witches. Rather than bars and fences, though, this regime makes it’s inmates tie ribbons to themselves and forewarns that should they remove them, they will be turned into a goat! As the story proceeds we face, with her, the sometimes quite ridiculously presented double-standards of a society that is striving to advance in many ways (especially if there are some Kwanza or eggs to be traded) whilst swathes of the traditional population are steeped in fearful superstition. We get a glimpse of a society that is still very structured in terms of age and sex and that adds both to the fun of the film and to it’s sense of the striving for societal progress in the face of many who simply see no need for it, and Maggie Mulubwa’s leading performance is really quite engaging throughout. Vivaldi, too? Well I wasn’t quite so sold on that but then I suppose it helps to highlight a narrative that is full of anachronisms that are sometimes more appreciable than at other times. It’s a bit rough around the edges and not always the most cohesively put together, but it’s quirkiness and the strong effort from Mulubwa wake it well worth ninety minutes.
★ 7 / 10
Dark satire
gbill-74877
A little girl somewhere in Africa is accused by villagers of being a witch, and unable to defend herself, is sent to live in a colony of witches. They're…
A little girl somewhere in Africa is accused by villagers of being a witch, and unable to defend herself, is sent to live in a colony of witches. They're essentially slaves, who at the whim of government officials, do manual labor in the fields, use their powers to single out thieves from line-ups, and summon the rain. It's a dystopian world with imagery that reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale, and indeed, both share the same noxious cocktail of superstition, cruelty, and the patriarchy.
While an exaggeration, the film is believable, which is part of why it's so disturbing. The other lies in the points director Rungaro Nyoni makes, none sharper than the tourists pulling up and seeing a group of people in captivity, being told they're dangerous witches held only in check by the long ribbons they're attached to, and, instead of expressing outrage, taking pictures with their phones.
The film is well made, with solid cinematography and a soundtrack that blends Vivaldi, Estelle, and traditional music (a dirge of which was wonderful). However, I found myself curious to know the backstory for the little girl or the other women kept in captivity, and wish this had been fleshed out more as drama. Not only is the title line never uttered, but the only time someone questions what's going on is a TV host who asks briefly, and after we see a dumbfounded reaction from the functionary, the film cuts away. There's undoubtedly a point there, one of complicity and how hard it is to question an entrenched system everyone is going along with, but it makes for pretty sad viewing.
98%
TOMATOMETER
· 84 reviews
73%
AUDIENCE
· 500 ratings
6.9/10
5K
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So again NOT in English as claimed