Fantasia 2025 Review: BURNING is a Taught and Layered Story About Grief and Perspective

It’s true that everyone tells a story from their own perspective. We all bring our own interpretations, biases and points of view into a situation, and those aspects color the way we see things. So what happens when we need to find the truth? When the events are uncontested, but the details and the way they are laid out and interpreted make all the difference?

Making its North American debut at Fantasia Fest, Radik Eshimov’s Burning is a Rasomon-styled tale set in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Kyrgyzstan. The story that we watch is built upon the dust of a tragedy, as we see how three family members have been impacted and the various ways in which their lives may (or may not) have changed in recent months.

One night, in a small village, a residential fire breaks out and destroys a home. It seems to be tragedy upon tragedy for the poor family who lives inside. Months ago, Asel (Aysanat Edigeeva) and Marat (Ömürbek Izrailov) lost their young son Amir and the shadow of his death looms large. In the aftermath of the fire, a group of locals gather at a nearby convenience store and speculate over how the fire could have started. Three people offer three very different versions of what was going on in that house over the past few days. One says that Marat’s mother, Farida (Kalicha Seydalieva), was to blame. She was a hateful woman who practiced black magic and was set on punishing her daughter-in-law for the death of her grandchild. Another neighbor claims that Asel, struggling with depression, had lost her mind and started the fire in a fit of grief. Yet another story emerges, when the neighbor’s wife claims that Marat was the one who never truly recovered from the loss of Amir and was taking it out on Asel. 

Three very different interpretations of the events that led to the fire, and somewhere within, lies the truth.

Radik Eshimov brings Daniyar Bolotbekov’s script to life in a way that highlights each story uniquely, giving each interpretation of events its own truth and its own feeling of reality…until you hear the next story. Each version seems equally plausible. Certain details remain true across each telling, but the characters morph greatly, depending on who is carrying the blame in each rendition. 

Any story worth telling is sold by the characters in it, and the family at the center of this one is intriguing, no matter which version we are listening to. Whether Farida is a concerned grandmother or an angry, vengeful witch, she is compelling. If Ansel is possessed by a spirit, or if Marat is truly the villain in the story, each actor brings a dynamic performance to the proceedings, highlighting different aspects of their character’s personalities depending on which story is being told, and always creating a three-dimensional performance that makes the tragedy at the heart of the story all the more heartbreaking. These must have been fun roles to play, given how different the characters are across the various tellings, and the actors really rise to the challenge. 

Bolotbekov’s script is nuanced, not simply telling the events in multiple ways. As the film progresses, he carefully drops details and fills in the small gaps of this home and family dynamic. We eventually learn the truth behind Amir’s death. Little moments that seem insignificant are given context. Over the course of the runtime, we are given more pieces of the puzzle that defines this world. As certain as each storyteller is that their version of the events is the truth, we quickly realize that nothing in this house is as it seems and that the truth of the matter is far darker than the community members realize.

Burning is a very well-made and well-acted film where the truth is never as cut and dry as it seems. At the end of the day, we are reminded to consider the source of our information and to understand the bigger picture implications of what we are experiencing. Every story has an impact, and things are not always as clear as they seem.

Movie Score: 5/5