Now let me first say that I'm from Europe and it's not a whole lot of Middle Eastern entertainment media that make it to our screens over here, so I'm not sure how biased this movie actually is, but from what (I believe) I know, it is a brilliant, yet horrific, take on traditional Middle Eastern culture and its problematic gender inequality - at least from a Western POV.
After the death of the family patriarch, the women of the family are left to fend for themselves in a culture that holds them to very traditional values, where men basically own the world and women just live in it (as long as they are claimed and accompanied by men).
Nawal does a terrific job at portraying the bleak existence of a young Pakistani woman, who were raised on traditional values yet struggling to accept and submit to them. I thought the reminders every time she did something, she knew to be "wrong", was a remarkable way of depicting the voice of "reason" in the back of her head. Very well done!
In a nutshell; In Flames is a horror DRAMA about female oppression and empowerment. It is thought-provoking, inspired and very necessary in this day and age.
I highly recommend watching it - although if you are looking for jumpscares or boogiemen, you'll find none here. It is not that type of horror.
