Jamaican Cinema Unearths the Memory of Slavery: 'Opening the Lid on a 300-Year-Old Horror'

In Sky's supernatural series Possession, a woman opens a 300-year-old box and unleashes a violent spirit — the howling return of the spirit of colonialism and oppression. That pivotal scene is more than a plot device; it reflects a broader shift in Jamaica's film industry, where directors are increasingly using local settings to tell Jamaican stories, including those that confront slavery, trauma and historical memory.

The series centres on a British-Jamaican lawyer who returns home to investigate a multimillion-pound inheritance dispute, only to uncover a dark, vengeful spirit bound to the plantation's brutal colonial past.

For Jamaican director Storm Saulter, ensuring the lingering trauma and legacy of slavery and colonialism is portrayed forcefully is paramount. Caribbean nations are increasingly arguing that centuries of slavery left the region with long-term disadvantages, fuelling fresh calls for reparations.

Dr Lisa Tomlinson, who teaches film studies at the University of the West Indies, says the themes in Jamaican films are changing. "They are now very much rooted in and reflect Jamaican stories — stories that were previously considered taboo or avoided."

While Jamaican films do not always address reparations directly, she argues that many are mining the legacy of slavery through cultural memory. "Reparations is not just a political act," she says. "It is also cultural. African-derived spiritual beliefs, historical knowledge — when they are expressed through artistic creation, they give us the power to tell our own story."

In her view, this is a form of "cultural reparations": reclaiming stories that were undervalued or suppressed under colonialism, and a way of educating audiences about the past that academia or politicians struggle to achieve. "Art plays a key role in how we are educated and how communities become aware of reparations," she says.

Jacqueline Jackson, Jamaica's film commissioner, also sees the shift. She says works such as Possession and Delroy Lindo's Jabari's People — shot entirely in Jamaica — reflect the growing confidence and ambition of Jamaican creators. "We have been affirmed as a destination for international productions," she says. "But what we want to see more of is local production and international collaboration that allows us to tell our own stories."

Both works, she notes, collaborated closely with Jamaican talent to ensure authenticity and to demonstrate what can happen when international financing and distribution meet Jamaican creativity. "They show the growing interest in Jamaican stories and their potential with global audiences," she says.

Tomlinson believes diaspora filmmakers are playing a particularly important role in this change. Unlike foreign productions that often use Jamaica as an exotic backdrop, diaspora directors are "moving away from the tourist gaze" and "capturing the everyday lives of Jamaicans".

Saulter sees his series as part of a wider political awakening. "The mask has slipped... We were told one thing, and it has been proven wrong. So there is a search for truth," he says.

He says the box-opening scene is not merely a plot detail but a metaphor for something larger: the rise of long-suppressed histories and Caribbean creators' growing willingness to confront the legacy of slavery, inherited trauma and colonial violence on screen.

"Literally, we are going to open the lid on a 300-year-old horror," Saulter says. "It is the spirit of colonial slavery and oppression howling back."

He explains that this "spirit" is embodied in a character who has lived through centuries of brutality — "a witness to history" — whose presence forces the main characters to confront the past they have inherited.

Saulter's interest in the subject dates back to childhood. "I grew up in the countryside," he says. "The Obia man, the church... nine nights... I lived through all of that."

Those experiences inspired him to tell stories that educate and have "real socio-political impact", while remaining compelling, gripping and entertaining. He argues this approach allows filmmakers to confront difficult histories. "Instead of doing something like talking heads... we take you on a journey," he says.

For Dr L'Antoinette Stines, a Yoruba priestess and cultural expert who consulted on Possession, the series' engagement with African spiritual traditions is part of a longer history of resistance.

"Black people have struggled and used art for a very long time. It is just that today there is more attention," she says. For decades she has staged similar works, and she stresses the importance of honouring the scholars, poets and artists who paved the way for today's boom in authentic Jamaican storytelling.

She praises Saulter's determination to ensure authenticity and to create a series that is both contemporary and deeply rooted, exploring inherited trauma, ancestral memory and the unresolved questions of colonialism.

Possession is streaming on Sky Atlantic and Now.