Rungano Nyoni 'outstanding debut' Bafta for I Am Not A Witch

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Rungano Nyoni and Emily Morgan thanked Ffilm Cymru for their support

A film about an African witch camp by a 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.

Image caption,
The film was based on real-life witch camps or villages in countries such as Ghana