Descending with Angels

Islamic exorcism or psychotropic medication? “Descending With Angels”, based on 18 months of fieldwork with patients and healers, explores two highly different solutions to the same problem, namely Danish Muslims who are possessed by invisible spirits called jinn. A Palestinian refugee has been committed to psychiatric treatment after a severe case of jinn-possession which caused him to destroy the interior of a mosque, crash several cars and insult a number of people. He sees no point in psychotropic medication since his illness has already been treated with Quranic incantations. In the meantime, a local imam battles a jinn-spirit and tries to explain the Muslims of Aarhus that they should stop worrying so much about jinn, magic and other mundane affairs since nothing can harm anyone except by the permission of God.

Christian Suhr

Christian Suhr is a filmmaker and professor of anthropology at Aarhus University. His research has focused on experiences of spirit possession, psychiatric illnesses, religious healing, and how film can be used to approach unseen dimensions of human life. He is the director and author of the award-winning film and book ’Descending with angels’ (MUP 2019,www.descendingwithangels.com), and the award-winning films ‘Ngat is dead’ (2009, with Ton Otto and Steffen Dalsgaard) and ‘Unity through culture’ (2011, with Ton Otto). His latest film is ‘Light upon light’ (2022).