I Am Not a Witch(2017)
dir. Rungano Nyoni
A child is tagged a witch. Tourists take photos.
Where to watch: Free: Kanopy and Hoopla (library card), Tubi, Plex, Pluto and Roku Channel (with ads); subscription MUBI, AMC+; rent $1.99-3.99 (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-05). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
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.
Where This Film Lives
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