{"id":367886,"date":"2026-04-07T13:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367886\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:12","slug":"duppy-from-director-ajuan-isaac-george-bound-for-cannes-frontieres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367886\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Duppy’ From Director Aju\u00e1n Isaac-George, Bound for Cannes Fronti\u00e8res"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLondon-based writer-director Aju\u00e1n Isaac-George<\/a> is headed to the Croisette with his film project \u201cDuppy<\/a>,\u201d which will be part of the Proof of Concept section of the Fronti\u00e8res Platform<\/a>, Cannes\u2019 biggest genre showcase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is a co-production between the U.K. and Jamaica and takes place in Jamaica in 1998, the most violent year in the island\u2019s history.\u00a0 It tells the story of 12-year-old Rainbow, who\u2019s left in the care of her grandparents in the Jamaican countryside.\u00a0 Feeling lonely and abandoned, she summons a hostile spirit in order to get back at her strict religious grandmother, unknowingly forming an unbreakable pact with a shapeshifting demon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Duppy\u2019 is a culturally specific horror that transforms Jamaican folklore into a universal story about grief, loneliness, and the destructive power of childhood emotion. Despite Jamaica\u2019s profound worldwide cultural influence, its folklore is rarely explored through a cinematic horror lens. It\u2019s a cinematic, visceral, character-driven horror where a child\u2019s need for control unleashes something far more terrifying,\u2019\u2019 Isaac-George told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever had a Jamaican project that explores its folklore, myths and legends that we know about,\u201d added Annick Mahnert, Fronti\u00e8res Platform executive director.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film will be Isaac-George\u2019s first feature-length project.\u00a0 His short film, \u201cSnowfalls in the Summer,\u201d premiered at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival and played at the Oscar-qualifying Hollyshorts. His short documentary, \u201cSeventeen,\u201d followed a group of roller skaters over the final summer of their adolescence and premiered at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Duppy team, from left to right: producer Dorottya Sz\u00e9kely, writer-director Aju\u00e1n Isaac-George, and producer Aleksandra Bili\u0107<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDuppy\u201d was presented to an industry audience at Film London\u2019s Production Finance Market in 2025, which showcases projects from emerging filmmakers. It is produced by\u00a0My Accomplice, with U.K. producers Aleksandra Bili\u0107 and Dorottya Sz\u00e9kely, and Jamie Clark executive-producing, in co-production with Mental Telepathy, Jamaica\u2019s Robert A. Maylor co-producing.<\/p>\n

\n\tOrganized by the Fantasia International Film Festival, in partnership with the March\u00e9 du Film, the Fronti\u00e8res is the world\u2019s leading international genre co-production market and networking platform between Europe and North America.\u00a0 The Fronti\u00e8res Platform takes place at the Palais des Festivals over May 16-17.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohn Hopewell contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London-based writer-director Aju\u00e1n Isaac-George is headed to the Croisette with his film project \u201cDuppy,\u201d which will be part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[192860,14400,192861,156,192862,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-367886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ajuu00e1n-isaac-george","9":"tag-cannes-film-festival","10":"tag-duppy","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-frontiu00e8res-platform","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}