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Possessed by Djinn

Possessed_by_Djinn The murder of a young girl leads to an examination of the Islamic belief in djinn in .  A four-year-old Jordanian girl named Aya is brutally killed by her father, who believed that she was possessed.  Spurred on by this event, filmmaker Dalia Al Kury launches into an investigation of djinn, which many Islamic people believe in, but don't like to talk about it.  Additionally, this belief is compared to the “demons of dictatorship,” which need to be exorcised from Jordon. Djinn are supernatural creatures in Islamic culture, which are essentially a parallel to demons in Christianity.  Those who believe that their loved ones are possessed by djinn, will often end up visiting healers called Sheikhs for assistance.  Possessed by Djinn examines these beliefs in relation to the murder of the young girl Aya.  Aya's family refuses to press charges against her father and believes that this is all just a “test by Allah.”  The belief in djinn are contrasted with protests against the corrupt government of Jordon, which the film suggests are the “real demons” of this society. It can be said that Possessed by Djinn ultimately takes a very atheist approach, in examining how the Islamic belief in djinn essentially lets a man off the hook for brutally murdering his daughter.  However, this viewpoint is contradicted a bit in the narration, where Dalia Al Kury describes strange events happening to her, such as waking up in the middle of the night at exactly 4am.  What is obvious from this film is that Jordon has a very corrupt and patriarchal society, which believes that Aya's family “needs their father,” even though he was a domestic abuser and killed his youngest daughter. It's something to think about. ★ ★ ★ 1/2 | FAIR 

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Sean Patrick Kelly
Sean Patrick Kelly
Sean Patrick Kelly is a freelance film critic and blogger based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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