Jinn | Black Cinema Connection

Posted on March 11, 2018

Release Date: 2017
Genre: Drama
Rating: NR
Director: Nijla Mumin
Studio(s): Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, Morgan’s Mark,
Sweet Potato Pie Productions
Running Time: 91 mins.

Cast: Simone Missick (Jade), Zoe Renee (Summer), Hisham Tawfiq (Imam Khalid), Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Tahir), Dorian Missick (David).

Story: Summer is a 17-year old carefree black girl, whose world is turned upside down when her mother, a popular meteorologist named Jade, abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person, prompting Summer to reevaluate her identity. But, while Summer initially resists Islam, she eventually becomes drawn to its teachings, particularly around the “Jinn,” supernatural beings who occupy a parallel world and have free will, like humans. Summer soon realizes that the religion is more complex than she thought, and that people interpret it in different ways. Yet, Summer’s need to be free and untethered to any one way of being clashes with her mother’s strict interpretation of the faith and causes a growing rift between them.

When Summer meets Tahir, a fellow Muslim classmate who attends the same masjid, she is further drawn to the religion and especially to his parents’ fluid, freeing practice of it. As Summer and Tahir build a connection based on laughter, curiosity, and beef pepperoni, a budding sexual attraction ignites, causing a major conflict between physical desire and piety. Source(s): Official site – jinnfilm.com; sxsw.com.