Djinn Wedding

Djinn Wedding follows four siblings through three distinct stages: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Since their occupation of the house they live in is considered unlawful, a kind of curse hangs over the family’s fates. Deniz (İlhan Şen), the eldest son, is able to leave the village to study in the city. His beloved sister Ceren (Demit Özdemir) has no other way out but marriage, while their younger brother, Halit (Kaan Yildirim), is forced to remain in the village to take care of their disabled brother, Yasin (Sarp Bozkurt). During Ceren’s wedding, long-buried memories begin to resurface.

Carried by its superb cast, Djinn Wedding has just the right amount of mystery to make you want to delve deeper, while using numerous narrative devices to ensure it never reveals too much. The wedding scene — the film’s centrepiece, which lays bare all the family tensions — is a captivating sequence following multiple characters as different events unfold simultaneously, reminiscent of some of the more memorable long takes in other great movies.

The weight of customs, patriarchy, family responsibilities (including the rifts between those who evade them and those who bear them), and societal expectations (exemplified by the village imam, who is criticized for buying a car) are skilfully explored. Ferit Karahan’s atmospheric family drama, swinging between beliefs, hopes, and dissolution, is a fantastic piece of work.

CLAIRE DIAO

Content advisory: self-harm, sexual content, coarse language, violence