A woman opens a 300‑year‑old box, unleashing a violent spirit—it is the spirit of colonialism and oppression roaring back to life. It is a pivotal scene in Sky’s supernatural series Possession and symbolizes a wider shift in Jamaica’s film industry, where directors are increasingly using the landscape to tell Jamaican stories – including those that confront enslavement, trauma, and historical memory.
The series is about a biracial British lawyer who travels to Jamaica to investigate a multimillion-pound inheritance dispute, only to uncover a dark, vengeful spirit tied to the plantation’s brutal colonial past.
For the Jamaican director, Storm Saulter, ensuring that the trauma and enduring legacy of enslavement and colonization were powerfully represented was critical. Caribbean countries are increasingly arguing that centuries of enslavement have left the region at a lasting disadvantage—fueling renewed calls for reparations.
Dr Lisa Tomlinson, a lecturer in film studies at the University of the West Indies, says the themes in Jamaican films are changing. “They’re now very much connected and reflective of Jamaican stories—stories that were previously taboo or avoided.”
While Jamaican films are not always explicitly about reparations, she argues that many are engaging with the legacies of enslavement through cultural memory. “Reparation is not just a political act,” she says. “It’s also culture. These African‑derived spiritualities, the historical knowledge—when they come through creative expression, what they do is give us authority to tell our own stories.”
Read more here.
