Animal's People

In a Zambian village, an eight-year-old girl is accused of witchcraft after a small incident and sent to a government-run witch camp, where the women are tied to spools of white ribbon so they can't fly away. She is made a tourist attraction and a courtroom tool. A deadpan satire from a Zambian-Welsh director about how belief becomes an industry.

Why it’s here: It's what a society does to someone who is made a spectacle. What's punk is the dry comedy of bureaucracy and tourism turning a child into an exhibit. What's pedagogical is the question it leaves: who benefits from the story? Pairs with Things Fall Apart, The Famished Road and Satanic Verses (suggested 10-22). Note: dark comedy, with a child at the center and no easy rescue; Nyoni drew on real witch camps in Ghana. English, Bemba and Nyanja with subtitles.

Six short stories from Argentina, each about someone pushed one step past breaking: a road-rage feud, a demolition expert whose car keeps being towed, a wedding that explodes, a bureaucracy that crushes a man. Each one begins with a small insult and ends somewhere much worse. A black comedy about the thin line between civilization and revenge.

Why it’s here: It's what happens when the powerful keep being petty and the rest get tired. What's punk is the delight in taking the system's side-eye personally. What's pedagogical is the anthology format: six cases students can argue about, including where revenge stops being funny. Pairs with Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Good Soldier Svejk and Our Man in Havana (suggested 10-21). Note: graphic, darkly comic violence, and the revenge isn't always aimed up; for adults and older teens. Spanish with subtitles.