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.

If I were to sum up "I Am Not A Witch" in just 3 words - I'd say that those 3 words would probably be - "Bleak" "Despairing" (and, yes) "Boring" (Extremely - Boring).

I found that this amateurish production had almost no entertainment value, whatsoever.

One of the most annoying aspects of this film was how obvious it was that when the camera was aimed at the actors you could tell they were all very aware of it being there.

All-in-all - I'm completely convinced that they were making up all of this story's voodoo/witchcraft nonsense as they went along. Yep. It was really that bad.

Remember Salem or the Inquisition - if you have some mental issues or if you're simply different or or if someone has something against you then welcome to, specifically in this film, contemporary rural Zambia. But, in a broader more generalized sense, the degradation of people happens everywhere fostered by ignorance, hatred, greed. We could add FGM into this cauldron, once only the province of Africa & the Middle East, has been found from N. America to England. Good acting; intelligent satirical dialogue, great juxtapositional background music.