#POLISH PREMIERE | fear and terror | modern witch | sorcery | app | rasism | possessing | mental illness | thriller | France | rituals | lizards | frogs | spiders | threat | suspense | city | violence | exorcism | gruesome | desperate | poverty | suburbs | superstitions

HOOD WITCH

thriller | Iran | France | 2023
World premiere: MotelX 2023
Polish premiere: Splat!FilmFest

A SPINE-CHILLING THRILLER ABOUT A WITCH FROM THE FRENCH SUBURBS

Nour’s life is not all roses. She ran away from her abusive husband and now she is raising her son all by herself. Her way of making money is quite risky. We first meet her at the security check of an airport, where she is asked to take off her classy coat, underneath which she has hidden hundreds of illegally smuggled little creatures: lizards, frogs, and spiders. You could say that Nour is a modern witch. She doesn’t believe in magic, but when faced with no other choice, she sees it as a means to gain profit. She even creates an app which enables its users to contact numerous shamans and healers. However, the society which Nour has to be a part of doesn’t approve of her way of life. People don’t refrain from displaying their racist disdain towards her, which slowly morphs into real acts of violence and abuse.

Hood Witch is a social commentary thriller by Saïd Belktibia. A spine-chilling story of a woman all alone against the violent and gruesome world, which is a home to intolerance and superstitions. One time, Nour even snaps, “I’m not possessed. I’m just furious.”. No wonder she is, since what seems as supposedly tolerant centre of Europe gave her no chance for a happy ending. The world she lives in looks much more like hell, in which she needs to survive. But it gets even far more terrifying, because this hell is real. And it surprisingly closely resembles a big European city.

Nour was given the beautiful face of an Irani actress, Golshifteh Farahani, who has already set her foot in Hollywood. You could see her in one of Netflix’s big hit series, Tyler Rake, in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson as Laura, or in the TV series version of Invasion. Her striking character in Hood Witch will certainly get imprinted in your memory, as well as the whole plot, which will probably make you perceive reality as less of a friendly and more of a hate-ridden place to live your life in.

directed by: Saïd Belktibia
screenplay: Saïd Belktibia, Louis Penicaut, Elias Belkeddar
cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Denis Lavant, Jérémy Ferrari
cinematography: Benoit Soler
editing: Benjamin Weill, Nicolas Larrouquere
language: French
subtitles: Polish, English
duration: 1h 31min
recommended age: 16+