From the Ashes is a Saudi Arabian teen thriller drama film released on Netflix on January 18, 2024. It is said to be inspired by real-life events, produced by Ideation Studios and directed by Khaled Fahed. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 32 minutes.
The ensemble cast includes Shaima AlTayeb, Khairyeh Abu Laban, Adwa Fahad, Darin AlBayed, and Aesha AlRefai. The story takes a peek inside a strict all-girls school when a mysterious fire blazes out of control—making everyone question whether it was an accident or arson.
From the Ashes Review
The film opens with a scene of the students getting ready to go to school. The only thing that can be heard is their parents telling them to cover up, while there’s a debate on the news if they should be allowed to show their wrists or elbows. They are enough to give you a hint about the kind of world they live in. However, once they enter the school, it’s like a free space of their own. They don’t have to cover themselves completely and are free to do anything while following the set rules.
Another striking thing is that the school guard locks the gate from outside, once the ring bells. On the inside, the teachers are their everything, preachers, parents and disciplinaries. Like every bunch of school students, there’s a group of rebelling bullies, nerds and privileged staff kids. The bullies – Heba, Mona and Mashael are always reprimanded by their teachers for wearing make-up, eating chewing gum etc. And the nerd girl is rewarded every time for one thing or another, making it seem like favouritism.
This creates a rift between the two contrasting groups and the awarded girl, Amira Saeed, always becomes the target of the bullying. Her only saviour is the stuck-up principal’s daughter, Rana. While they are best friends and are always on top of all things, Rana is often compared to Amira by her mother and disregards her achievement. And just like any other day when all the characters are dealing with one thing or another, Amira is locked inside the store room by someone. Unfortunately, a fire also breaks out on the premises.
Almost everyone makes it out alive except locked up Amira, leading to a police investigation. As expected the trio of bullies becomes prime suspect but they all plead innocence, puzzling everyone and questioning who could actually be behind the tragedy. As they close in on everyone’s relationship with Amira, secrets and hidden personalities are revealed.
As the school is getting blazed, what feels absolutely ridiculous is how the school is locked from the outside, making it impossible for anyone to go out. The guard is nowhere to be found and everyone is just pleading for someone to break them free. On top of that, the authorities take so much time to act on help and rescue and even third parties block them from entering just because it’s an all-girls school and men shouldn’t enter (since they might be covered up). Even when they had just escaped death, the main concern was to get them to cover their heads with whatever was available.
Rather than the thriller of who could have locked Amira and possibly set the school on fire, the ways of their world, customs and interpersonal stories are much more intriguing and should have been explored in more detail. Also, it becomes quite predictable who could be the culprit, not leaving enough suspense. Instead delving into the intricacies of girl’s lives, like being married off in school for hanging out with a boy once or suspected queer behaviour among students etc could have added more layers to the story.
Overall, it’s a decent film but with lacking punches and a crisp script. Even though the end reveals some big secrets, it isn’t impactful and rather feels meh. The character of Rana could have brought some twists but becomes an educating subject on the pretence of character development. And the more one gets to know about Amira, one feels like they would have locked her up as well.
The story is actually inspired by the tragic school fire in 2002 in a school in Mecca. If they had taken just the incident into account, this could have been a social commentary on the religious police as due to their delay/hesitance (since women might not be wearing the burqas) in rescue, 15 people lost their lives. Whereas, the film has become somewhat of a revenge thriller with personal grudges being the main focus.
Rating: 2.5/5
From the Ashes is available for streaming on Netflix.
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