Jamaican stories are moving beyond the familiar images of beaches, music and crime to examine the beliefs, prejudices and uncomfortable realities shaping life on the island.
Storm Saulter’s Possession has been attracting international attention with a story rooted in Obeah, Jonkonnu, slavery, inheritance and reparations, while Get Millie Black confronted colonialism, sexism, homophobia and the marginalisation of queer Jamaicans.
Back home, the Jamaican psychological thriller Stew Peas has also had audiences talking by bringing together a deeply held belief involving Obeah with infidelity, misogyny and class prejudice.
This is not unfamiliar territory for the film’s writer, director and producer, Sosiessia Nixon-Kelly. Her award-winning short film Raw Materials explored sexuality, abuse, homophobia and restrictive ideas about masculinity. With Stew Peas, she once again uses entertainment to place difficult subjects on screen and force audiences to examine their own beliefs.
What Is Stew Peas About?
Stew Peas follows Detective Tessa Riley, played by Kerry-Ann “Chiney K” Collins, as she investigates the unresolved murder of her best friend. Nearly two years into the case, the pressure of the investigation begins to affect her marriage to Neil, played by Tarique Barrett, and her relationship with their daughter.
Marcia, a domestic worker played by Quera South, enters the family’s home and begins providing the food, attention and care she believes the family is missing. However, her intentions extend beyond helping with the household.
Marcia attempts to “tie” Neil by adding menstrual blood to stew peas. According to the belief explored in the film, the blood is concealed by the colour of the red peas and used to bind a man emotionally and sexually to the woman who prepared the meal.
Nixon-Kelly said the idea for the film came during Hurricane Beryl when her husband referenced the belief in tying someone through stew peas.
“I was like, ‘You know, I’m going to write a film about this,’” she recalled.
What begins with that culturally specific belief develops into a psychological thriller about manipulation, desperation and what happens when someone attempts to control another person’s choices.
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The Taboos Beneath the Thriller
Central to Stew Peas is the belief in tying, which Nixon-Kelly uses to explore the danger of interfering with another person’s free will. Marcia does not simply pursue Neil; she attempts to remove his ability to choose by spiritually binding him to her.
For Nixon-Kelly, that question of agency carries one of the film’s main messages.
“Do not interfere with other people’s agency. Allow people to always choose,” she said.
She also hopes women who believe they must resort to tying to keep a man will recognise that it is not worth the consequences.
Another theme the film explores is “bun,” particularly the normalisation of male infidelity and the unequal expectations placed on women within relationships. Tessa works in a male-dominated profession while still being expected to fulfil traditional responsibilities as a wife and mother. Neil wants an independent and professionally successful partner, but also expects her to maintain the home and remain emotionally available.
“Most men are like that,” Nixon-Kelly said. “They want their women to be independent, but they still need the household duties to be taken care of. Sometimes women find it really difficult to balance the two.”
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Tessa’s determination to solve her best friend’s murder creates distance within the family, giving Marcia an opportunity to provide the attention and domestic care they believe is missing.
The relationship between the two women also brings the film’s examination of class prejudice into focus. This becomes especially clear when Tessa describes Marcia as “nobody, just the helper.”
Nixon-Kelly said the remark becomes a turning point for Marcia, who had begun to believe that she and Tessa were developing a genuine friendship. It also reflects the contradictory treatment of domestic workers, who may be trusted with people’s homes, food, children and private lives while still being viewed as socially inferior.
“Persons just tend to look down on you because you’re in a certain job or you have a certain skin colour or whatever,” Nixon-Kelly said. “They don’t understand the implications that these things do to people.”
Marcia’s treatment does not excuse her actions, but it asks viewers to consider how class, occupation and complexion influence the value placed on people.
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A Filmmaker Who Makes Jamaica Confront Itself
Stew Peas continues Nixon-Kelly’s history of using film to examine uncomfortable aspects of Jamaican society. Her award-winning short film Raw Materials, the first locally produced Jamaican film to qualify for Academy Award consideration, explored sexuality, homophobia, abuse and restrictive ideas about masculinity.
While her stories may begin with a spontaneous idea, their deeper themes are deliberately developed as she gets to know the characters and refines the script.
“Everything I write is intentional,” Nixon-Kelly said.
Her films are not intended to moralise or dictate what audiences should believe. Instead, she uses storytelling to place difficult realities before viewers and encourage them to examine their own assumptions.
“It’s definitely an opportunity for you to think and an opportunity to have discussions,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to bring certain things to the forefront, things that persons are uncomfortable talking about, but we’re living these things every day.”
Nixon-Kelly also understands that audiences must first be engaged before those messages can resonate.
“I want to hit the themes and I want to get the messages out, but I also want it to be entertaining,” she said.
That combination of social commentary and entertainment has become central to her work. Through Raw Materials and now Stew Peas, Nixon-Kelly uses film to make Jamaicans confront the beliefs, prejudices and behaviours shaping their society while leaving them to reach their own conclusions.
A Completely Jamaican Production
Perhaps the second most remarkable thing about Stew Peas, apart from how cleverly it transforms cultural taboos into a psychological thriller, is that the production is Jamaican from top to bottom.
The film was conceived in Jamaica, written and directed by a Jamaican filmmaker, and produced through Ikon Media and Films, the Jamaican-based production company Nixon-Kelly runs with her husband. It was also filmed entirely on the island with a Jamaican cast and crew.
Working with a limited budget, the team completed production in just 12 days, a demanding schedule that required extensive preparation and discipline from everyone involved. For Nixon-Kelly, the accomplishment reflects both the capabilities of Jamaica’s film industry and the challenges under which its creatives continue to work.
She believes the industry needs greater access to financing, education and international markets. Filmmakers, she says, must also understand that creating a film is only one part of the process.
“A lot of creatives in Jamaica don’t understand that film is a business,” she said.
That means thinking about licensing and distribution, as well as how to reach audiences willing to pay for Jamaican stories. It also means Jamaicans taking greater control of how the country and its culture are represented internationally.
“Persons have been milking our culture,” Nixon-Kelly said. “Why can’t we represent ourselves and tell our own stories?”
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Stew Peas Reception
Stew Peas premiered to a sold-out audience at Carib 5 on June 27 before opening across Palace Amusement cinemas. Nixon-Kelly, who places greater value on authentic audience reactions than reviews and awards, sat at the back of the theatre to experience the film from the audience’s perspective. As viewers laughed, shouted at the screen and interacted with the story, she knew the film had connected with them.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my craziness is being enjoyed,’” she recalled. “For a moment there, I felt good. I was like, ‘Job well done.’”
Stew Peas has received seven nominations at the inaugural Caribbean Film Awards, including Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Caribbean Heritage Film Award, Caribbean Film of the Year and the Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Although grateful, Nixon-Kelly does not believe awards validate her stories or motivate her to continue creating.
“They’re just objects on a shelf,” she said. “They don’t help me to tell my stories.”
The film made its United States debut in Maryland on August 23rd, with regional screenings planned for Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Saint Lucia and other markets. Negotiations were also underway for Stew Peas to reach a streaming platform before the end of 2026, although no platform had been confirmed at the time of the interview.
