---
title: "I Am Not a Witch"
year: 2017
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/i-am-not-a-witch"
fi1m_id: "i-am-not-a-witch"
imdb_id: "tt6213284"
tmdb_id: 449757
wikidata_id: "Q29514875"
fi1m_score: 80
critics_score: 76
critics_reviews: 16
published: "2026-10-03T00:01:58.033331+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-03T00:01:58.484889+00:00"
region: "AU"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# I Am Not a Witch (2017)

Directed by Rungano Nyoni · 1h 33m · Drama

## Identity

I Am Not a Witch

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/i-am-not-a-witch
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** i-am-not-a-witch
- **IMDb ID:** tt6213284
- **TMDB ID:** 449757
- **Wikidata ID:** Q29514875
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6213284/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/449757, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29514875

**Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 76 from 16 reviews

*In a sentence:* A witch trial where the evidence is a spilled bucket and the defence is a child’s silence

> Rungano Nyoni’s first feature is dry, strange and often funny: a small Zambian girl is declared a witch and tethered to a spool of ribbon. The image lasts; the satire around it is broader than it needs to be, and the last third repeats itself.

## Synopsis

Rural Zambia. Tourists on a coach stop to photograph a camp where elderly women sit in the dust, each tethered by a long white ribbon to a wooden spool. Elsewhere, a woman carrying water trips at the sight of a small girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), and the village decides she is a witch. At the police station an officer (Nellie Munamonga) takes statements while neighbours describe what Shula did to them in their dreams. Mr Banda (Henry B.J. Phiri), a government official, arrives to take charge, and Shula is delivered to the camp, where the women explain the rule: keep the ribbon and stay a witch, or cut it and turn into a goat. Banda, meanwhile, has ideas about what a witch could do for him.

## Review

Rungano Nyoni’s first feature opens on a coach party. Tourists stand at a rail and point their phones at a row of elderly Zambian women sitting in the dust, each with a long white ribbon running from her back to a wooden spool on a lorry behind her. A guide explains the arrangement. Nobody asks the women anything. Then Nyoni cuts to a village, where a woman carrying water on her head trips at the sight of a small girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa). That is the whole of the case against her.

At the police station the neighbours give their statements to an officer (Nellie Munamonga) who writes it all down with a straight face. One man (Chileshe Kalimamukwento) says the girl cut off his arm in a dream; he has both arms. We laughed, and then stopped, because the camera goes back to Shula, sitting against the wall, saying nothing, with nowhere else to be. Nyoni does this again and again and it is the film’s best trick: the joke lands, and then she shows you who is paying for it. Mr Banda (Henry B.J. Phiri), a government official in a suit a size too small, arrives to take charge, and a witch doctor is sent for to settle the question with a chicken.

Banda delivers her to the camp. The women there are tied to their spools because a witch set loose will fly away and kill, and a witch who cuts her ribbon turns into a goat; that is the rule, and nobody is interested in discussing it. Shula is given the choice. Mulubwa plays the decision without a line. She looks at the ribbon, at the women, at the ground, and the women wait. We have watched a great many children act and most of it is pitched at the grown-ups watching. This is not. Nyoni appears to have found the right face and then kept the camera on it.

David Gallego shoots the country wide and flat, orange earth running out to a pale horizon, and he keeps the ribbons in frame as thin white lines across all of it, so the women look pinned to the ground they sit on. Nathan Parker’s spools are enormous and wooden and plainly built by someone who took the idea seriously, which is why they work as furniture rather than as a gag. Yann Dedet and George Cragg cut without warning from one place to the next, and the film rarely explains how anyone got there; it is a style, and once or twice it is a muddle. Matthew James Kelly’s music comes in rarely, and when it does it is often concert-hall strings over red dust, which is funny the first time and sadder each time after.

Banda has plans for his witch. He takes her to a line-up of men suspected of theft and asks her to point out the guilty one; she walks slowly along the row while the men sweat. It is the funniest scene in the film, and it is a child being used as a tool in front of frightened adults. Phiri plays Banda as a big, cheerful, perspiring man who talks about Shula as an asset and believes he is being good to her. Some critics have found the performance too broad. We think the broadness is deliberate, but there is a great deal of it, and by the third time Banda is on the phone promising the girl to somebody, the joke has stopped moving. His wife, Charity (Nancy Murilo), who knows the camp from the inside, gets one scene of advice to Shula that explains how this all works better than anything Banda says.

The second half brings the tourists back, and television, and a drought, and we will not describe where it goes. What we can say is that the film has made its point by the hour mark and spends the remaining half hour making it again at a slower pace. The women of the camp, Ritah Mubanga’s Sequinned Witch among them, are more interesting than the plot gives them time for. The scenes where they simply sit and talk, and look after the child in their offhand way, are the ones we wanted more of.

It is 93 minutes and a 12A. Nothing in it would frighten a child; most of it will make an adult uneasy, and the two things are not unrelated. Watch it on the largest screen you have, because the ribbons need the width.

*Fi1m score 80, published 3 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**How long is I Am Not a Witch, and what is it rated?**

*I Am Not a Witch* runs 1h 33m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch I Am Not a Witch in Australia?**

*I Am Not a Witch* is available to rent from Apple TV from A$4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**What should I watch after I Am Not a Witch?**

After *I Am Not a Witch*, try [*Wadjda*](https://film.one/film/wadjda) (2012, Fi1m 80): A Saudi girl wants a bicycle; the adults have other plans and she outlasts most of them. Then [*Timbuktu*](https://film.one/film/timbuktu) (2014, Fi1m 88): Sissako’s occupied town is absurd and frightening by turns, and photographed with the same patience; and [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) (1973, Fi1m 87): A child’s silence carries a whole film; Erice trusts a face the way Nyoni does.

### Reviews we read (16)

- **The AV Club**, Katie Rife (A-): Rife praises the film as a spellbinding, bone-dry satire, though its final third becomes repetitive. She singles out Maggie Mulubwa’s restrained performance and Nyoni’s bold, formally ambitious direction. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/tradition-and-technology-collide-in-the-spellbinding-b-1828889737)
- **Slant Magazine**, Pat Brown (3.5/4): The review praises the film’s deft balance of comedy and tragedy while emphasizing its critique of women’s exploitation. It singles out Maggie Mulubwa’s restrained performance as key to making Shula an empathetic figure. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/i-am-not-a-witch/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (82/100, inferred): Turan praises the film as an audacious, smart, and savage satire with a dramatically involving story. He singles out Rungano Nyoni’s assured direction and the strong performance by young star Maggie Mulubwa. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-i-am-not-a-witch-review-20180913-story.html)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (4/5): O’Sullivan finds the film gripping and buoyant despite a weak performance from the government official. She especially praises Maggie Mulubwa’s restrained portrayal and the witches’ vivid presence. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/i-am-not-a-witch-review-supernatural-satire-of-modern-zambia-a3683496.html)
- **Little White Lies**, Natalie Wardle (4/4/3): Wardle finds the film exhilarating and humorous, but says its sparse storytelling leaves viewers adrift near the end. She praises its striking visual compositions and costume design. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/i-am-not-a-witch)
- **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (4/5): The review is positive, praising the film’s droll satire and its exposure of clashes between tradition and progress in modern Zambia. It also notes a sombre denunciation behind the comedy. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-gd1pw0/i-am-not-a-witch/)
- **Time Out**, Anna Smith (4/5): Smith presents the film as a sharp-edged, startling fable about Zambian society. She praises its magical-realist approach to gender and superstition, seen through a young orphan’s eyes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-am-not-a-witch)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Stephen Dalton (75/100, inferred): Dalton finds the film a hugely charming, spellbinding debut, while noting that its elliptical approach can make the story incoherent. He praises its striking visual style and inventive use of music. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/i-am-not-a-witch-review-1007575/)
- **The New Yorker** (75/100, inferred): The capsule presents Nyoni’s film as confrontational yet empathetic, with a largely positive verdict. It praises the powerful symbolic images Nyoni draws from the oppressive setting. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/i-am-not-a-witch)
- **The New York Times**, Jeannette Catsoulis (75/100, inferred): Catsoulis gives the film a positive verdict as a darkly comic, unsettling satire. She singles out its sharp treatment of the persecution and control of women. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/movies/i-am-not-a-witch-review.html)
- **Total Film**, Jamie Graham (75/100, inferred): Graham finds the debut a fiercely original satire that rewards viewers willing to embrace its arthouse pace. He praises its striking imagery and deadpan humour, while noting that some satire feels scattershot and heavy-handed. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/cannes-2017-startling-debut-i-am-not-a-witch-leaves-audiences-spellbound/)
- **Screen Daily**, Wendy Ide (70/100, inferred): The critic presents the film as an arresting debut. She singles out its setting in and around Lusaka, Zambia. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/i-am-not-a-witch-cannes-review/5118516.article)
- **The Guardian**, Gwilym Mumford (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an original, charming satire, though its languid pacing and unclear storytelling sometimes frustrate. They single out Henry BJ Phiri’s performance as the officious, incompetent official for particular praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/25/i-am-not-a-witch-review-satire-zambian-witchcraft-cannes-2017)
- **Variety**, Jessica Kiang (70/100, inferred): Kiang finds the debut intriguing and invigorating, though at times too chaotic and difficult to follow. She especially praises David Gallego’s cinematography and its exploration of the film’s white streamers. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/i-am-not-a-witch-review-1202426342/)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (85/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the film sharply funny and emotionally affecting in its satirical critique of sexual politics. She particularly praises the bobbins as a fairy-tale-like metaphor that becomes sinister on reflection. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-am-not-a-witch-2017-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
- **HeyUGuys**, Daniel Goodwin (35/100, inferred): Goodwin finds the film absorbing but flawed, arguing its satire weakens its treatment of serious social issues. He praises Margaret Mulubwa’s performance and David Gallego’s cinematography. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/i-am-not-a-witch-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Rungano Nyoni
- **Director:** Rungano Nyoni
- **Writer:** Rungano Nyoni
- **Cinematography:** David Gallego
- **Editor:** Yann Dedet, George Cragg
- **Music:** Matthew James Kelly
- **Production design:** Nathan Parker
- **Producer:** Juliette Grandmont, Emily Morgan
- **Cast:** Maggie Mulubwa as Shula; Henry B.J. Phiri as Mr. Banda; Gloria Huwiler as Tourist; Nellie Munamonga as Police Officer; Dyna Mufuni as Leader; Nancy Murilo as Charity; Ritah Mubanga as Sequinned Witch; Chileshe Kalimamukwento as Witness
- **Runtime:** 1h 33m
- **First release (France):** 25 May 2017
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOtcU_-KuaQ

## Where to watch in Australia

- Apple TV: rent A$4.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy A$8.99, sd

*Checked 2026-10-02.*

Also available in: AU, BE, BR, DK, FI, FR, GB, IE, MX, NL, NO, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- International Submission to the Academy Awards 2019: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated)
- IFFR audience award 2018: IFFR audience award (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Moolaadé* (2004): Sembène’s village women refuse a custom and the men discover they cannot make them obey.
- *Dogtooth* (2009): Another film where a made-up rule is obeyed with a straight face until it stops being funny.
- *Wadjda* (2012), Fi1m 80: A Saudi girl wants a bicycle; the adults have other plans and she outlasts most of them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/wadjda.md)
- *Timbuktu* (2014), Fi1m 88: Sissako’s occupied town is absurd and frightening by turns, and photographed with the same patience. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/timbuktu.md)
- *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: A child’s silence carries a whole film; Erice trusts a face the way Nyoni does. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/i-am-not-a-witch