By Halima Abdi
Published May 25, 2018
When an eight-year-old girl turns up alone and unannounced in a rural African village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to a full-blown witch trial, where the girl is found guilty and sentenced to life on a state-run witch camp. There, the eight-year-old is tethered to a long white ribbon and told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. As the days pass, the girl whose name is Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom.
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This is the summary of I AM NOT A WITCH movie that is scheduled for screening in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 29, 2018 at 7:30 PM as part of the ongoing 27th European Film Festival of Nairobi (May 6 – June 5, 2018).
I AM NOT A WITCH, that is written and directed by Zambian-born Welsh Rungano Nyoni, shall be shown alongside four Virtual Reality (VR) films curated by Catherine Allen, a BAFTA-winning, immersive media specialist, in collaboration with leading arts organisations in Britain that present what is described as an intimate perspective of powerful moments that are likely to shift the way people think about ballet, theatre, spoken word and contemporary dance.
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Presented by British Council, the VR films shall kick-start the shows to be held at The Alchemist in Westlands district from 4:00 PM. Entry is free.
The 27th edition of the European Film Festival is expected to show 50 movies in 9 venues across Nairobi, providing what the organisers of the event describe as ‘a window into the diversity of people’s lives in Europe and Kenya’.
Meanwhile the 20th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival is expected to serve 40 movies focusing on women who have made an indelible mark on history in various venues around Johannesburg (the Bioscope and Nouveau Rosebank) and Cape Town (the Labia, Nouveau V&A Waterfront and Bertha Movie House, Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha) between May 31 and June 10, 2018.
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