SXSW: Jinn brings Muslim American representation to the coming-of-age genre

Nijla Mu’min’s Jinn is a coming-of-age story at its core, but it is also much more. Lead by Simone Missick and newcomer Zoe Renee, the film tackles difficult and timely themes in a digestible manner.

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Coming-of-age stories are a dime a dozen. The years that shaped who you are tend to stick with writers and become the topics of their work. The characters that you relate to the most are the ones that you fall in love with.

Currently, the rallying cry “representation matters” has erupted into a surge of film and television properties with minority faces at the forefront. Black Panther (a film with the second largest budget ever given to a black director) continues to break box office records. Earlier this year, Jordan Peele became the first black writer to win an Oscar for his screenplay. And in September, Lena Waithe became the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing. All of this happened within the past 6 months. These successes mean that the door will open for new diverse voices to emerge, and Nijla Mu’min has made a case to be added to that list.

What makes Jinn different?

No stereotypes

In Jinn, we get a coming-of-age story about a young black girl. These are few and far between in their own right, but it is also a story that avoids the black movie tropes. Jinn does not deal with drug abuse or poverty. There are no drive-bys, absent fathers, or ghettos. I could go on but I think you get the idea. The film is set in suburban Los Angeles and our surroundings are not a huge part of the story. The only other film that comes to mind that meets these parameters is Love and Basketball.

Summer (Zoe Renee) is a black girl going through her senior year of high school. She lives in a middle-class neighborhood and seemingly goes to a decent school. She has a passion for dance and is planning to go to school to pursue this passion. Her friends also dance but don’t seem to take it quite as seriously as she does. She is a typical high school girl. She flirts with the cute guys (and girls) and hangs out with her friends gossiping at the local eateries. Her parents are divorced but on good terms. Though she lives with her mother, her father is a big part of her life. There is nothing about Summer’s background that makes her stand out in any way.

Until there is.

Positive depictions of American Muslims

The synopsis of the film tells us that Summer’s world is turned upside down when her mother, popular meteorologist Jade Jennings (Simone Missick), converts to Islam. This allows us to view the Muslim experience through a few different lenses during the film.

First, we have Simone Missick’s character. Something was missing in her life and she believes she has found it through Islam. She is new to the faith and learning as she goes along while trying to bring her daughter along for the journey. Without diving too deep into the story, Summer is skeptical initially and questions her mother’s conversion. She does attend service with her and through this service meets Imam Khalid (Hisham Tawfiq). He is very traditional and his approach to the faith becomes an issue for Summer during the movie.

However, Nijla masterfully provided us with another perspective as well. One that served as the perfect counter-punch to the “saw that coming” situation that develops with Imam Khalid. Through Summer’s journey of self-discovery, she befriends a boy in her class named Tahir (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) who has been a practicing Muslim his entire life. She meets his parents and is surprised by how laid back they are. They have a beautiful marriage and seem more relaxed than what Summer was expecting from a Muslim couple. Through their relationship, and Tahir, we get to see another side of practicing Muslims that breaks a lot of the myths that those unaware carry. This was a welcome sight on-screen and something that we don’t have enough of. This image of what a Muslim couple could be also helps Summer find her way.

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How good was it?

For all of the above reasons Jinn was already on solid ground but, despite all of those great elements, there were ways this could have gone wrong.

It did not.

The acting

The story itself is ambitious and captivating but it is the acting that really puts the film over the top. Zoe Renee completely morphed into Summer to the point where it did not feel like she was acting. I mentioned that she is a relative newcomer. Currently, the only other credit to her name is her role as Noni Williams on BET’s The Quad. I expect that won’t be the case for long. Her character is self-confident but extremely inquisitive as well. Renee captures both sides of this character without any of it feeling unnatural.

Simone Missick who plays Jade, Sumer’s mother, also delivers a strong performance. During the film we get to see her grow in her faith, deal with her daughter’s struggles with the change, and how the change affects her professionally. Missick navigates this all with her usual grace, as Jade’s strength is counter-balanced by her vulnerability during different moments in the film.

For the sake of time, I’ll spare you an actor-by-actor analysis but the supporting cast doesn’t drop the ball either. I can’t point out a single questionable performance. All of the characters read as authentic and that takes us to our next point.

Digestible to the casual observer

This is actually the biggest reason that Jinn was one of my favorite movies at the festival. Here we have a film that presents characters that many moviegoers have never seen on-screen. They are dealing with issues that many could see as controversial given the current climate in America. It would have been easy to try too hard to push a positive message into the film in a heavy-handed manner. It would have been even easier to spend a ton of time talking about all of the negativity faced by the Muslim community, but neither of these things occurs.

Nijla simply tells a story that happens to feature Muslim Americans. It is a positive story that I’m sure those in the community will greatly appreciate but it is also one that will be consumable by outsiders. At the end of the day, though the themes and appearance may be different, they are just people dealing with everyday situations. This was a point also made by the creators of The Big Sick when talking about the depictions of Muslims in their film.

When will Jinn be in theaters?

As of the time of this post, Jinn does not yet have distribution. However, because the film does a service to the Muslim community and is also consumable for outsiders, I think it has a great chance to be picked up. The director and producer mentioned that they were having talks during the festival but did not go into detail. I would not be surprised if there was a bidding war behind the scenes. Nijla also won The Special Jury Recognition for Writing at SXSW so Jinn is carrying hardware.

Next: SXSW: Making the grade will make you want to take piano

Overall

Jinn is a movie worth seeing. On the surface, it sells as a film about a girl dealing with her mother’s conversion to Islam, but below the surface, it is a strong coming of age drama. The push for diverse content and the lack of positive Muslim images in American media make this film instantly marketable. Wherever it becomes available, I will be doing my part in encouraging people to see it.

Stay tuned for updates on Jinn’s distribution status in the coming months.