A film about an African witch camp by Welsh-Zambian director has won a Bafta for outstanding debut.
Rungano Nyoni’s feature ‘I Am Not A Witch’ tells the story of an eight-year-old Zambian girl accused of being a witch.
The director, who was brought up in Cardiff from the age of eight, accepted the prize alongside producer Emily Morgan.
She appeared to be shocked to have won, saying: “We’re not prepared.”
After thanking her husband, mother and niece, she said: “I’m now pulling things from the air. Erm, who else? Oh, and the cast and the crew, thank you.”
Nyoni spent a month at a witch camp in Ghana to research the film.
For the film, she decided the idea of introducing a little girl accused of being a witch into the group of old women in her story, would see them re-thinking their lives.
The low-budget feature was made with funding from organisations including Ffilm Cymru and the BFI, and it was the first Zambian film to be shown at the Cannes film festival.
Amazing stuff ladies and gentlemen. She’s put Zambia on the world map. Bravo
This is an interesting movie. If only zambians in the diaspora can support this movie it could make a difference.
It has a mostly zambian cast and good to watch.
But come on!! , why go and research at witch camp in Ghana when we have mununga in luapula and ‘school of medicine’ in kaoma, western province
It has a mostly Zambian cast coz it was done in Zambia dude. She also did Mwansa The Hero, a short film that won a multitude of awards.
Fantastic and well done, we need more of such for our mother Zambia.
Researching a Zambian movie in Ghana. #Lintonlies
wow; while other Zambians are making good history; Lungu and PF are making history for corruption and putting Zambia into more debt; but why this obsession with witchcraft? burn the witch camp in Ghana;
This is good development but as usual we most Zambians don’t appreciate anything special as a result we don’t have a word congrats in our vocabularies .so can’t comment much.its too nice for us.we are waiting and searching for any negativity we can find in our president and his government magnify it and post comments. We are suffering because of them.i will not do any work until they leave office cz they are the reasons we are suffering.
were they any local Zambians in the cast? can ZNBC show this movie. we need to see it
They were all local. It was done in Zambia mudala. Forget about ZNBC mentioning it I bet they had no idea it was being filmed
Congrats Ms. Nyoni.
Amazing Achievement. I wish this was a bigger deal than the usual politics we get. Zambian Director makes a film in Zambia with an all Zambian cast and wins the equivalent of an oscar!!! BRAVO!!!
This is the second major award she has won. She took Mwansa The Hero to Cannes a few years back. Short film that starred one of the Mwape brothers, the guy who was married to Saboi.
Congratulations for the award. It will inspire you to do more.
Congratulations Ms Nyoni and the Zambian cast.
THANKS SO MUCH RUNGANO NYONI FOR PUTTING US ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE. TRUELY, THIS YEAR HAS BEEN OURS. ONLY LESS THAN OR ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO ZAMBIA WAS NOT ONLY AMONG THE 10 COUNTRIES DECLARED AS THE WORLD’S MOST PEACEFUL COUNTRIES, IT WAS TOPPING THE LEAST AND THEREFORE THE MOST PEACEFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. LAST ALSO SAW ZAMBIA BEING THE MOST PEACEFUL COUNTRY IN AFRICA AND SOME MORE UP-GRADES. IT IS WONDERFUL, YET AGAIN, TO HERE THAT A ZAMBIAN HAS WON A BAFTA IN HER DEBUT APPEARANCE. ON MY OWN BEHALF I THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU.