In *Hosa*, her 5-minute 20 short film, Gerheta Jupiter explores the links between hair, memory and identity. Blurring the lines between psychological thriller, poetry and dreamlike imagery, the film transforms a visit to the hairdresser’s into a journey into the intimate wounds and invisible legacies of a young Black woman.
Sometimes, a single gesture is enough to bring a whole past back to the surface. In *Hosa*, the decision to cut off her straightened hair and return to its natural texture becomes the starting point for an inner journey that is as unsettling as it is necessary. Directed by Gerheta Jupiter, this 5-minute 20-second short film explores a question that appears trivial on the surface, yet is deeply linked to identity, cultural transmission and society’s perception of Black women’s bodies.
At the heart of the story, Hosa, a 20-year-old woman, visits a hairdressing salon hoping to reclaim her natural hair. But behind this decision lies a confrontation with painful memories, buried traumas and social pressures that have shaped her relationship with herself. As the scissors snip away and the combs glide through her hair, reality gradually begins to crack. The salon gives way to a dreamlike world dominated by the colour red, where the wounds of the past resurface.
Hair: a living memory
In *Hosa*, Gerheta Jupiter explores hair as much more than a physical attribute. For the director, it constitutes a living archive, bearing personal and collective stories. Hair tells of the constraints endured, the choices imposed or asserted, but also of the sacrifices made and the reclaiming of one’s identity.
The film thus lends a symbolic dimension to an everyday act. Cutting one’s hair becomes a way of reclaiming one’s body and challenging the aesthetic norms that weigh heavily on Black women. This intimate journey ties in with a collective history, marked by pain, pride and the determination to break free from the gaze of others.
Through Hosa, the director also pays tribute to mothers, sisters and grandmothers, whose hair has been the silent witness to countless stories. It is a way of reminding us that identity is also shaped by the legacies we inherit, sometimes without having chosen them.
Between reality and the inner world
To convey this intimate confrontation, Hosa creates a dialogue between two visual worlds. The scenes in the hairdressing salon are rendered in a subdued, realistic style, characterised by soft lighting and a camera that stays close to the character. This closeness allows us to grasp both her vulnerability and her moments of defiance.
In contrast, the dreamlike world is characterised by harsher lighting, stark contrasts and an overwhelming presence of the colour red. This mental space gives form to the memories and micro-aggressions that have left their mark on Hosa. It is not simply a matter of depicting her past, but of making the viewer feel how it continues to haunt her.
The sound design plays a key part in this experience. The sounds of scissors, the scraping of combs, silences and breaths gradually weave together to form a sensory tapestry. The slam poetry, meanwhile, runs through the film like an inner voice, putting words to buried pain and accompanying the character’s journey.
Finding freedom without erasing the past
Rather than proposing a linear path to recovery, Hosa focuses on the fragility of emancipation. For Hosa, reclaiming her natural hair does not mean erasing the wounds, but beginning to view them differently. Freedom emerges as an uncertain process, made up of confrontations, resistance and transformation.
With this short film, which straddles the boundaries of cinema, poetry and performance, Gerheta Jupiter invites everyone to question their own relationship with social norms, memory and personal trauma. Whilst the film is rooted in an experience particularly associated with Black women, it opens up a more universal reflection on the possibility of reclaiming one’s own history.
For in Hosa, reclaiming one’s hair is perhaps, above all, about rediscovering the path back to oneself.
