‘Burning’ movie review: the Kyrgyzstani ‘Rashomon’?
Kyrgyzstani director Radik Eshimov's horror-drama "Burning" (original title "Ot") has won 'Best Screenplay' at two Kyrgyzstan film festivals and drawn critical praise for its unconventional structure. It is Eshimov's first horror film after a career largely spent in comedy and crime drama, and it has been likened to Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" for its technique of retelling the same events from multiple, contradictory perspectives, leaving audiences to piece together the truth themselves.
The story centres on a house fire in a small town and the young couple, Marat and Asel, who lived there, whose recent loss of a child has fuelled local gossip and suspicion. Divided into three chapters – 'Guilt', 'Excuse' and 'The Reason' – the film revisits the lead-up to the fire through the eyes of different central characters, each version altering details and raising fresh doubts about family tensions, mental health and even suggestions of black magic. Reviewers highlight the tightly constructed script, restrained performances (particularly Aisanat Edigeeva as Asel) and sparse score, and note the film is currently available internationally exclusively via IndiePix Unlimited on Amazon Prime Video.
In short
- Kyrgyz horror-drama "Burning" wins Best Screenplay at two festivals
- Told in three chapters from differing, conflicting viewpoints
- Compared to "Rashomon"; streaming via IndiePix Unlimited on Prime Video
Explained simply
Marat and Asel, a young couple in a small Kyrgyzstani town, lose their house to a fire not long after suffering the death of their child. Grief and gossip already surround them, and the fire deepens local suspicion about what really happened and why.
Director Radik Eshimov, better known for comedy and crime dramas, tells this story in "Burning" (Ot) through three chapters, each named 'Guilt', 'Excuse' and 'The Reason'. Every chapter revisits the same events from a different character's point of view, with details shifting each time, so the film builds a picture of family strain, mental health difficulties and rumours of black magic without settling on a single version of the truth.
This layered, contradiction-driven approach has drawn comparisons to Akira Kurosawa's classic "Rashomon" and has helped the film win Best Screenplay at two Kyrgyz film festivals. It matters as a notable departure for Eshimov and as an example of Kyrgyz cinema gaining wider attention, with the film currently available outside Kyrgyzstan only through IndiePix Unlimited on Amazon Prime Video.