When Jinn, the feature length directorial debut of writer-director and S&A contributor Nijla Mu’min premiered at the SXSW, it received a great amount of acclaim and won the Special Jury Award for writing.
Now, Orion Classics has acquired the North American and Latin American rights to the film!
Written and directed by Mu’min and produced by Avril Speaks, Jinn follows black teenage Instagram celebrity Summer (Renee), whose world is abruptly turned upside down when her mother (Simone Missick) converts to Islam. Summer comes to terms with her faith and her identity, which all comes to a head when she becomes attracted to a Muslim classmate. It stars Renee, Simone Missick, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Hisham Tawfiq, Kelly Jenrette, Dorian Missick, Ashlei Foushee, Maya Morales and Damien D. Smith.
Mu’min, a California Institute of the Arts grad and Sundance Institute Fellow, pitched Jinn at the Film Independent Fast Track Film Market, and was the recipient of a Panavision New Filmmaker Camera Package. Her short films have screened at festivals across the country. She was the winner of a 2014 Best Screenplay Award from BET for her script, Noor. Recently, Mu’min was an SFFilm / Rainin Filmmaking Grant recipient and named to the ’25 New Faces of Independent Film’ list by Filmmaker Magazine.
The film is set to be released in theaters on Nov. 15 and on VOD and Digital HD on Nov. 16.