Drawing on her own experience of postpartum depression and anxiety, Elizabeth Sankey’s latest documentary blends cultural and cinematic histories to argue a compelling link between motherhood, mental health and the figure of the witch.  

Sankey’s previous films, including 2019’s Romantic Comedy, incorporate clips from a wide variety of films to illustrate her theses. The same cinephiliac collector’s instinct is seen here, with depictions of witches from The Wizard of Oz and Rosemary’s Baby up to the more recent Robert Eggers’ The Witch on show. These clips are interrogated, dissected and linked in Sankey’s moving personal testimony to the pain and suffering experienced by mothers throughout history.  

Witches is both a powerful feminist message, and a balm for everyone who goes to the cinema to try to escape their own pain.