Sorgin Gaua: Hood Witch + Sorcery

Vulvine Reine de l’Extase (2022). Mary Yanko, Théo Guyot, Ming Chieh Chang, Nawel Bahamou, Clémence Andre. France. 8 min

A queen languishing in a desert kingdom falls in love with Death, with whom she begins a carnal relationship. This morbid union becomes an obsession for her; an obsession that will lead the queen to her end...

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Hood Witch (Rokya, 2023). France. 91 min

• Direction: Saïd Belktibia.
• Production: Iconoclast Films.
• Screenplay: Saïd Belktibia, Louis Penicaut, Elias Belkeddar.
• Photography: Benoît Soler.
• Edition: Benjamin Weill, Nicolas Larrouquere.
• Cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Amine Zariouhi, Denis Lavant, Jérémy Ferrari, Issaka Sawadogo.

Saïd Belktibia is French. With African roots. You can tell at first sight, at first listen when you pronounce his name. A brother from the Parisian banlieue and Mali's bidonville of Ladj Ly, the French-Malian author of Les Miserables (2019) and Les Indésirables (2023). In 2014 the two of them filmed a really powerful documentary, 365 jours au Mali. Saïd Belktibia knows how to make films. Disturbing films. In Hood Witch he depicts a woman who makes her living by trafficking in exotic relics, creatures, objects, roots. And linking up desperate clients with mystical healers via an app… Saïd Belktibia was quick to upload to his Insta account the images showing this film receiving a particular special mention at MOTELX Lisbon from the jury who decided on Europe's Silver Méliès award.

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Sorcery (Brujería, 2023). Chile-Mexico-Germany. 101 min

• Direction: Christopher Murray.
• Production: Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue, Nicolás Celis, Viola Fügen, Michael Weber / Fabula, Pimienta Films, Match Factory Productions.
• Screenplay: Christopher Murray, Pablo Paredes.
• Photography: María Secco.
• Music: Leo Heiblum.
• Edition: Pamela López.
• Cast: Valentina Véliz Caileo, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hülk, Daniel Muñoz, Neddiel Muñoz Millalonco.

The Straight Province really existed. In the Chiloé archipelago in the south of Chile, inhabited by native chonos, cuncos and huilliches since before the arrival of the Spaniards, and also after the terrifying events recounted in Felipe Gálvez's magnificent film The Settlers (2023). The Straight Province was made up of human creatures in contact with the powers governing the sea, the earth, the heavenly bodies and animals. Both conquistadors and settlers naturally abhorred them as much as they feared them. That is the starting point for this work of ethnographic horror in which the State of Sorcery clashes with the State of the Republic of Chile. Witches and warlocks were persecuted in 1880, but according to rumour, although in abeyance the Straight Province still holds firm.