Around 45 minutes into Hood Witch (Roqya), there is an extended chase scene. Director Saïd Belktibia, who co-wrote the thriller with Louis Penicaut, imbues this foot chase in and out of an apartment building, around traffic, and a raging inferno with ferocious intensity. It is quite a surprising thing, as up until then, the film has been a totally decent, if slightly unremarkable, familial drama about a woman, her abusive ex-husband, and their son. Does the finale keep the pace up from that set piece, or do things unravel quickly?
Nour (Golshifteh Farahani) is a practicing witch, in the real-world sense. In order to make ends meet though, she deals in exotic animals, which are not always legal. A lot of these creatures are used in her and other practitioners’ rituals. Dylan (Jérémy Ferrari) is her scumbag ex-husband, who runs a questionable business and is very behind on child support. Said kid is Amine (Amine Zariouhi), who lives with his mom though Dylan has visitation rights.
Nour’s world is turned upside down when a ritual she’s hired to do by a friend and neighbor does not work. The rite was for the man’s child, but the teen took his own life. Whether out of grief or a need for revenge, the man tells everyone Nour killed him. Now, the entire city is on the hunt for the witch, who is trying to flee with Amine by her side. Is there any safe place she can go, or is Nour doomed to be caught and abused by those who don’t understand her religion?
“…the entire city is on the hunt for the witch, who is trying to flee with Amine by her side.”
The first half of Hood Witch is okay. The family drama stuff is mildly interesting, though some plot holes exist. Dylan intentionally runs his car into Nour’s to prove a point (I guess?), but in the aftermath, she doesn’t contact the authorities. This is well before she’s blamed for the death of the teenage boy, and it is already established that he owes child support. That means she’s been through the court systems before, so his threat of exposing what she does rings hollow. Perhaps this is why, despite the best efforts of the fantastic cast, the story never quite grabs viewers. It wants to be in the real world but doesn’t wholly explore or explain why Nour cannot or will not do XYZ to help Amine and her get on in life. But once the child dies and the chase is on, the film offers more thrills and exhilaration than most Guy Ritchie movies could even dream of, much less offer up.
Farahani handles the drama as well as possible, considering its awkward writing. But she sells the desperation and need to survive once things hit the fan. She shares strong chemistry with Zariouhi, who is so natural in the role he might have just been being himself while the cameras were rolling. Ferrari is so vile and despicable that audiences beg for him to get his comeuppance. Issaka Sawadogo portrays Ahmed, a very important character in the second half, and gives the part the appropriate gravitas and menace.
Hood Witch starts off slow and with some odd plotholes. But once the chase is on, there’s nothing else like it in cinemas now. It’s exhilarating and intense in the best possible way and brought to life by a cast of amazing actors. Stick with this, as it not only gets better, it becomes great.
For more information, visit the official Hood Witch site.
"…stick with this, as it not only gets better, it becomes great."
