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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
Country
“Botswana”
x
Keywords
“Ritual”
x
Series
“The Well-Being Quest in Botswana”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Year of production
“2004”
x
Status
“A”
x
Region
Southern Africa
1
Country
Botswana
1
x
Keywords
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Reproduction (biology)
1
Ritual
1
x
Directors
Werbner, Richard
1
Series
The Well-Being Quest in Botswana
1
x
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
2004
1
x
Status
Film
Séance Reflections with Richard Werbner
2004
45
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
Njebe and Martha are a childless couple living in Botswana’s capital. Seeking to recover their well-being, they consult a charismatic diviner and healer, in Njebe’s old village, Moremi. They watch their filmed séances on a monitor and reflect with ethnographer Richard Werbner. Moved by the diviner’s revelations, about their intimate lives, they try to make sense of the séances puzzling moments. They wonder about the diviner’s rapid recital of highly ambiguous, archaic verse, his leading them in chants of call and response, and his preaching against Christianity and for restored communication with the ancestors. They express their doubts about the healing treatment. The film turns back and forth in time, and it moves across town and country. It follows the uncertainties of interpretation during and after séances, the blaming of occult attack on others, and the understanding of personal responsibility for failure to be caring of kin. It illuminates predicaments of urban villagers who straddle the city and the village.
Southern Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Ritual
Reproduction (biology)