Writer-director Zarrar Kahn has spent the better part of the last calendar year sharing his feature directorial debut, In Flames, with audiences around the world. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight collection. From there, it traveled along the festival circuit, making notable stops at TIFF and the Red Sea Film Festival, winning numerous awards along the way. At the latter, in fact, the film won the Golden Yusr for best film, which included a cash prize of $100,000 (incidentally, a third of the film’s total budget).

“It’s definitely deepened,” Kahn said in our interview of how his relationship with In Flames has evolved over the course of the year. “I’m so grateful for how people are describing this movie, and the way it’s landing as a movie that can speak to how systems of oppression enact violence on marginalized communities, both overtly and also covertly. [The film] has transformed from this thing that I was really ecstatic about — because it was my first film — to, now, feeling like it’s something that belongs to other people.”

Set in Karachi, Pakistan, In Flames stars Ramesha Nawal as Mariam, a young woman completing her studies in medicine, who, with her single mother Fariha (Bakhtawar Mezhar) and younger brother Bilal (Jibraan Khan), is grieving the recent loss of her maternal grandfather. While at school, Mariam meets Asad (Omar Javaid), a charming man from Canada. Though something sparks between them, a fatal motorcycle accident takes Asad from Mariam, leaving her with ghosts from her past that haunt her day and night. With seemingly no one to turn to, Mariam is left to fight the demonic presence on her own.

A Career Strengthened by Women in the Industry
In Flames 4.5/5 Release Date April 12, 2024 Director Zarrar Kahn Cast Ramesha Nawal , Omar Javaid , Bakhtawar Mazhar , Mohammad Ali Hashmi , Adnan Shah Runtime 98 Minutes Writers Zarrar Kahn Studio(s) CityLights Media , Other Memory Media , Fae Pictures Distributor(s) XYZ Films

With In Flames, Kahn seemingly steps outside himself to tell a story that is fundamentally about two women from different generations. Of course, a quick look at the list of short films he directed prior to the feature will show that uplifting others is actually par for the course; there’s a clear through-line of spotlighting different marginalized communities in his work. For example, 2020’s Stray Dogs Come Out at Night focused on a migrant sex worker, while Bhai from 2021 featured a character with autism. With respect to his feature, Kahn noted how the film “speaks to the importance of community [and] the importance of finding pockets of space to carve out your own existence in a harsh and often cruel world.”

Behind the scenes, Kahn was intentional about working with women, from Anam Abbas (producer) to Carol Ann Noronha (line producer) to Aigul Nurbulatova (director of photography), among many others. Throughout his entire career, in fact, the director credits “incredible women who have managed to create spaces and sets that are often safer and where all different types of people can thrive” as informants of his own feminism and desire to tell women’s stories. He added:

My career has been really strengthened by the role of women in wanting to create a film that can speak to the horrors and frustration faced by women in societies that are conservative and in Pakistan, particularly, where we’re in a new form of the women’s rights movement.

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How Men Reviewed In Flames

Indeed, underneath the mother and daughter relationship is a story that examines the patriarchal systems of power within Pakistan. In this regard, In Flames effectively urges its audience to look inward and reckon with their own complicity in similar structures at play where they are in the world, which, Kahn revealed, proved to be divisive, specifically with male audience members.

There was one review that especially stuck with him: “This guy said, ‘This film made me consider how my actions can be interpreted by women — and how my generosity and my offering of favors and gifts can be interpreted by women — and for that reason, I didn’t like it.'” He went on:

I don’t think people in power ever want to let that power go, and never want to let that power go without a fight, and that’s where we see the need for films that can speak to being in someone else’s shoes.

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A New Wave of Canadian Cinema

Historically, the Canadian film industry has been largely overshadowed by its American counterpart (both in Hollywood blockbuster and independent productions alike). While we have seen major highs — Canadian cinema of the 2010s, for example, introduced the world to filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve and Xavier Dolan — there have also been significant lows. Now, Kahn (who is based in Toronto) and In Flames arrive at an interesting time in Canadian cinema. With films like Riceboy Sleeps by Anthony Shim and The Queen of My Dreams by Fawzia Mirza, we are seeing a new wave of filmmakers emerging, each of whom are expanding the definition of what a Canadian movie is.

“We’re on the verge of Canadian cinema transforming in the way that it was with the Toronto New Wave and Atom Egoyan in the ’90s. We’re seeing people taking bolder swings, and we’re seeing the support of both audiences and arts funding,” Kahn remarked. “My secret hope is that we can echo French cinema, which [has been] this cultural ambassador, where they use funds to create French cinema everywhere. I would love for Canadian cinema to play that role as well, where they partner up with storytellers from across the world and there’s a cross-proliferation of stories and ideas and teamwork.”

For Kahn, whether it’s the future of a national cinema or the pursuit of equity and equality, it starts with community: “I hope audiences leave In Flames thinking that, in a cold and often morally bankrupt world, communities are what can make life worth living.”

A production of City Lights Films and Other Memory Media in association with XYZ Films and Fae Pictures, In Flames releases in select theaters April 12 from Game Theory Films.