J-N-N

In Iraqi culture, the jinn are elusive entities that have been around since the dawn of time. Benevolent or malicious, they appear in different forms, carry certain sounds with them, and are capable of healing as well as wounding. These entities, mentioned as far back as the Quran and pre-Islamic texts, have shaped the local cosmogony. In J-N-N, artist and researcher Ginan Seidl interweaves these beliefs with fragmented images of the Iraqi desert and family interiors to paint a spectral portrait of a territory marked by colonisation and decades of war and terror. Babylonian archaeological sites and the replica of Nebuchadnezzar's palace commissioned by Saddam Hussein – himself advised by seven Jinns and other magicians – also appear charged with these spirits. Intimate accounts gathered from the filmmaker's family give rise to entities that seem to roam this now-liminal territory, from the Iran-Iraq war to the American invasion of 2004 and the more recent advance of the Islamic State on Baghdad.

Aurélien Marsais

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