The Promises

Director N’Diaye explores Malian tradition, myth, and the ethereal through interviews with women who—like her—claim to be possessed by enigmatic spirits known as jinn. The litany of curses and warnings for women are as plentiful as air: don’t go out at night, or into the forest alone, or dream of water, unless you too become haunted. From countryside to cityscape, she seeks answers from all those made feverish by a social structure built to control women, or at least haunt them. “I am in my thirties and still single,” she notes. “I live permanently under family and societal criticism.”