‘In Flames Review: This Pakistani Horror Film Shows How The Strings Attached To Gifts Can Strangle You
© Provided by IndieWire"Nobody gives anything for free."
All of the pranks that happen in On Fire - and there are quite a few of them - stem from a special warning that Maryam (Ramesha Nawal) gives to her mother. A 25-year-old medical student is interrupted by the arrival of his uncle Nasir (Adnan Shah), who offers to pay off all his family's debts after leaving him and his brother for the rest of his life. The family's financial struggles make her nervous, but most of the suffering could have been avoided if only the mother had learned the film's most important lesson: prize horses must be cared for.
A well-deserved honor of being the first Pakistani film in over four decades to debut at the Filmmaker's Fortnight, Zarar Khan's horror film is a Kafkaesque saga with absurd subtlety. What begins as a story of a poor family relying on the kindness of their community turns into a story of sex that keeps moving beneath you as all of your benefactors stand their ground. Discomfort was replaced by discomfort, while it was just brutal.
Fariha (Bakhtavar Mazhar) has been through a lot. The violent death of her husband left her in a pitiful position as she raised her two children alone in a small apartment in Karachi, Pakistan. Although she is able to keep her job as a school teacher, she is dependent on her father's financial support due to her country's cruel restrictions on women. But when he died, he was left with a mountain of debt that had accumulated over his life. His eldest daughter Maryam is preparing for her final exams and hopes to start a medical career, but her youngest son Bilal is still a dependent.
When Uncle Nazir offers to pay all of his father's bills without any conditions, it's hard to blame him for taking it as a godsend. But her daughter, whose educational and career aspirations open up more modern prospects for her, is immediately sceptical. He warns Fariha not to sign a legal document without reading it, but her mother is not too keen on stabbing a golden parachute. In the end, Mariam had no choice but to put her worries aside; he has more important things to do.
Parallel to his studies, a cautious aspiring doctor begins a new romance with a library boy named Asad (Omar Javid). While at first he doubts it to be a distraction, his carefree charm begins to undermine his discipline until he happily quits his job and rides his motorbike to the beach. Between the new relationship and the financial freedom she sees on the horizon, Mariam seems finally ready to live her life on her own terms.
He had about an hour to indulge in the euphoric feeling before Assad died in a motorbike accident on his way home from the beach. Mariam quickly realized how dangerous the streets at night were for a single woman, so she had no choice but to take the first taxi driver she came across. The man refused to pay for the return fare, which led to another implied error that Mariam never asked for.
When Maryam returned home, there was no time to feel sorry for herself, as a much more serious problem had suddenly arisen in the family. Nasir's uncle was hoping to mess with them and said that now he owns their apartment and wants them to move out soon. As Mariam and Fariha struggle to navigate the country's Byzantine legal system to save their homeland, the ghosts of their past begin to haunt them. Mariam kept hallucinating about a zombie version of Assad making suggestive gestures outside her bedroom window, and her dreams kept returning to childhood memories of her mother's abuse. The horror gradually becomes more sinister until the two women realize that they can only rebuild their lives by burning their old traumas.
Kahn's masterful use of distraction and subtext creates an atmosphere where no one is sure where he is. The most evil film actors never show aggression outwardly, preferring to use a gingerbread instead of a stick to get their way. Everyone always wants to provide assistance to Mariam and Fariha when they need it, so that they can respond to their irresistible requests at the most inopportune moment. The use of kindness as a weapon is so pervasive that a true altruistic act is indistinguishable from a trade trap.
The film draws on three distinct sources of anxiety: the harsh realities of Pakistani women, the general human tendency to be skeptical of unsolicited favors and gifts, and the supernatural elements that literally haunt the characters one by one. The result is a story where something is felt almost every moment, but you can't tell where the fear is coming from until it's too late. A Grim Life would be interesting enough to watch on popcorn if it wasn't too true-to-life for a lot of people.
On Fire is premiering as part of the Directors' Fortnight at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. US distribution is currently being sought.
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