BURNING

A year ago, Marat and Asel lost their son. Now their house is burning. Neighbors whisper that the couple has long been cursed. What they cannot agree on is the cause of the fire. Some are convinced that it was Marat's mother, who disliked her daughter-in-law. Others believe that Asel brought misfortune upon the house by blaming herself for her son's death.

Using the concept of an unreliable narrator, most famously exemplified by Akira Kurosawa in Rashomon, director Radik Eshimov creates three versions of one story, told in different genres. There is a witch horror about an evil mother-in-law, a fright flick about exorcising a demon, and finally, a poignant social drama that sheds light on the essence of the events.

Eshimov examines the dynamics of a patriarchal family, the anxieties of a young woman and the power of public opinion. Through the language of genre cinema, the film addresses domestic violence – a problem that hangs over many communities like an invisible ghost that no one dares to name. BURNING became a box-office success in Kyrgyzstan, where domestic violence remains a pressing issue, and sparked a wave of films using genre to confront violence against women.

Text: Ksenia Reutova

SA I 08.11. I 20:45 I KAMMERBÜHNE I original version with English subtitles + simultaneous German translation