My mother is a witch is an emotional psychological drama that uses a provocative title to explore inter-generational trauma, strict African parenting and family reconciliation rather than actual sorcery.
Jess lives a glamorous, successful life in the UK as a fashion editor for British Vogue. Jess receives a video message from a doctor stating that her estranged mother, Adesuwa has passed away from cancer and desperately wished for her forgiveness and presence at her burial. Despite twelve years of absolute estrangement and harboring deep bitterness, she travels back to Benin City, Nigeria expecting to quickly close the chapter on her past.
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Upon arrival, Jess discovers the harsh reality, her mother’s terminal condition and death were heavily exaggerated, outright faked as an extreme ploy by those around Adesuwa to force a reconciliation. The narrative moves through flashbacks explaining why Jess labeled her mother a “witch” as a teenager. Adesuwa was intensely overbearing, authoritarian and controlling.
Flashbacks reveal severe clashes: Adesuwa rejected an uncle who offered to sponsor Jess overseas because of hidden predatory motives, heavily restricted Jess’s teenage relationships and forced her through traumatic interventions when young Jess got pregnant and fled to London vowing never to return. Jess confronted her mother directly, unleashing years of built-up pain, resentment and the emotional damage caused by strict, uncompromising discipline.
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Adesuwa represents an older generation of African mothers whose harsh, fear-based methods stemmed from a desperate, flawed desire to protect their daughters from repeating their own devastating mistakes.
The film transitions from anger to closure, emphasizing that true “witchcraft” in the story was just the painful collateral damage of uncommunicative parental love. Jess and Adesuwa find a path toward genuine forgiveness before Adesuwa’s actual final passing.
Directed by: Niyi Akinmolayan
Cast: Mercy Aigbe, Timini Egbuson, Efe Irele, Neo Akpofure, Nike Adams
Running time: 100 minutes
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