Combining deeply personal and painful stories from women who have suffered greatly through postpartum and depression with clips of the stigmatizing views of witches through film history, this juxtaposition serves to destigmatize maternal mental health issues by drawing symbolic parallels between the isolation, societal judgment, and “unruly womanhood” often attributed to witches and the very real emotional struggles faced by these women and begs the question: why is there more being done?

Sankey employs her own personal struggle to lay the groundwork for this film that also features therapists, heads of women’s organizations and friends. In an exploration to remove the shame and blind eyes of the medical industry at large for women, Sankey uses what we’ve been told about “witchy women”, equating them with hysteria and misunderstanding and society’s reluctance to ever go too deep lest the figure out that they were not only wrong, but ill-equipped to make such judgements.

The film does incredible work creating empathy around maternal healthcare and it adjacent mental health struggles and shines a light on the tragic story of Dave Emson who’s wife Daksha stabbed their 3-month old daughter Freya to death and burned herself and Freya alive in their bedroom. Dave has started campaigning for more mental health focus on women’s postpartum healthcare.

It’s emotional, and deeply disheartening that the burden of shame society has casted on women at such a vulnerable stage in their lives makes it almost impossible to share their stories, but Sankey is off to a great start in creating that space.

Witches had it’s UK Premiere on October 12th.