ZAMBIAN FILM 'I AM NOT A WITCH' WINS MORE AWARDS

Sun, 17 Dec 2017 11:24:22 +0000

By TERENCE MISELO

The film was nominated for the British Independent Film Award (BIFA) 2017 that took place on Sunday 10th December, 2017.

“It picked up the Best Director award for Rungano Nyoni after being pitched in competition with Armando Lannucci for ‘The Death of Stalin’, Francis Lee for ‘God’s own country’, William Oldroyd for ‘Lady Macbeth’, and Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh for ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’, ” read a statement on the film’s achievement.

” Rungano also picked up The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director) at the same Awards beating Thomas Napper for ‘Jawbone’, Francis Lee for ‘God’s own country’, William Oldroyd for ‘Lady Macbeth’ and Deborah Haywood for ‘Pin Cushion’.”

‘I am Not a Witch’ tells the story of an 8-year old girl Shula, accused of witchcraft after a trivial mishap in her village. After a short trial, she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp in the middle of a desert. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches in a large tree. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she’ll be cursed and transformed into a goat.

The third award picked up for the film at the BIFA was for Breakthrough Producer that went to producer Emily Morgan.

The film was nominated in the BIFA awards in a record 13 categories including that of Best Actress for Margaret Mulubwa’s role.

The film writer, Rungano Nyoni 35, is a Welsh-Zambian writer and director, known for Mwansa the Great (2011), I Am Not a Witch (2017) and Listen (2014). To do the film, Nyoni was inspired by an incident while on holiday in Zambia as she explained to the British Paper ‘The Guardian’.

“My neighbour came over, screaming, saying her grandmother was a witch and had turned into a snake. My grandmother did a major eye roll. She was like, ‘Oh God, she just wants to get home and she can’t afford the bus fare. It’s stupid.’ But the neighbour really seemed to believe it,” she narrates.