In Flames

After the respected head of family dies in Karachi, his widow and her daughter Mariam, a student, are confronted head-on with the violence and abuse of noxious and unsparring patriarchy. While the film’s argument could have stuck to the psychological and sociological, In Flames goes a step further, with accents of fantasy and horror. The film’s baroque morbidity is not a simple allegory but an explicit depiction: yes, the condition of Pakistani women in an empire of darkness is the stuff of horror films. (Cannes Film Festival)