Hood Witch – Roqya – Film (2023)

THE PLOT OF HOOD WITCH – ROQYA

Hood Witch – Roqyathe film directed by Saïd Belktibia, tells the story of Nour (Golshifteh Farahani), a single mother who lives on the margins of society, on the outskirts of Paris.

To survive, he gets by between smuggling exotic animals, illegal goods and working on the limits of legality. An ingenious and resilient woman, she has also developed an app that connects the inhabitants of the neighborhood with marabout healers, spiritual figures rooted in mystical traditions halfway between religion, medicine and magic. But when one of the consultations offered through his platform turns into tragedy, the situation worsens. A young woman dies during a ritual. Nour is accused of witchcraft by those around her, and what was a precarious balance is broken. Superstitions turn into hatred and the neighborhood turns against her.

Nour is portrayed as a threat to be eliminated, a modern witch to be burned. Thus begins a real hunt for women, where her body and her identity become the target of physical and moral violence, in a spiral that recalls the worst nightmares of medieval persecutions or contemporary repressions in places where social control is exercised through punishment.

With her son to protect and no one to count on, Nour will have to fight to save herself and unmask those who are framing her, in a world where traditional beliefs mix with technology, and justice gives way to fanaticism.

CURIOSITIES ABOUT HOOD WITCH – ROQYA

Directorial debut of Saïd Belktibia.

Premiered at Cannes Film Festival in the section ACID.

Rokya draws inspiration from the term Ruqyahan Islamic practice that consists of reciting verses from the Koran to ask for spiritual healing and protection from physical and mental illnesses and negative spiritual influences such as black magic and the evil eye.