Welcome to Retro Rewind, the TGJ original feature carved out to celebrate the magic of cinema.

Today, we revisit the gem that is ‘Eve’s Bayou‘ which explores the traumatic yet fantastical nature of memories. In it, Jurnee Smollett plays a young girl named Eve Batiste whose life is changed when she witnesses a traumatic scene which she is asked to bury by “reimagining” what happened.

It isn’t long before the truth about what she sees and what is out there decides that it is no longer willing to hide in the dark.

Memory is a selection of images – some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was ten years old.

Revisit the picture with us below…

Released in 1997,  the Kasi Lemmons picture earned $14 million following its release and was met by a wave of powerfully positive reviews.

You don’t have to believe in magic to be gripped by the psychic forces that the characters’ sorcery unleashes. Sibling rivalry, sexual jealousy and anxiety are all feelings that, when heated to the boiling point, have incendiary, semimagical powers.

Your thoughts?