Moko Jumbie

Set amidst the tropical beauty and mysteries of Trinidad, Moko Jumbie tells a tale of collision: between descendants of Africans and Indians, between immigrant cultures in different lands, the past and present, real and magical, and political danger versus relative safety. Asha (Vanna Girod), a 16-year-old British subject of Indian descent, goes to Trinidad to visit her aunt Mary (Sharda Maharaj). Although the latter is generous and kind, Mary proves to be quite bossy concerning the girl’s whereabouts, preventing her from mingling with other teenagers, especially with a black family living in a ramshackle house next door. Mary suspects that their teen son Roger (Jeremy Thomas) robbed her house. The film suggests that some kind of dark magic is behind these tensions, particularly after Asha experiences a sort of Rosemary’s Baby-like fever dream under Roger’s roof. A crossing over of spirits into the human realm becomes a startling, persistent theme here, not as a fear factor but rather as a revelation of blurred cultural traditions. Asha absorbs the many contradictions around her, becoming part of the intermingled fabric of this world in filmmaker Vashti Anderson’s haunting, often beautiful movie, which fearlessly travels unexpected paths. Recommended. (T. Keogh)