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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Natricia Duncan Caribbean correspondent

‘Opening the lid of a horrible secret’: Jamaicans confront enslavement with taboo-busting stories on screen

Gugu Mbatha-Raw's character walks through a crowded street festival with people in colourful costumes
Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in Sky’s supernatural series Possession set in Jamaica. Photograph: Des Willie

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 symbolises 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.

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