Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames to make international debut at Cannes Director’s Fortnight

KARACHI: Pakistani artists continue to wow and this time, it is Zarrar Kahn making waves with his horror movie titled In Flames. The movie is set to make its international debut at the Cannes Director’s Fortnight, which is a selection running parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. And that’s not all! In Flames has also been selected by XYZ, an American film production and sales company, to head a slate of titles that will fall under the company’s newly-launched global film initiative called New Visions.

The Director’s Fortnight will be held from the 16th to the 27th of May and the Pakistani horror movie is one of the 20 features and 10 shorts chosen as part of the event this year. The official synopsis of the movie reads as, “After the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s precarious existence is ripped apart by figures from their past – both real and phantasmal. They must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.”

Writer and director Zarrar Kahn has described the whole experience as, “The surrealist move of 2023.” He went on to talk about In Flames which stars Bakhtar Mazhar, Mohammad Ali Hashmi, Ramesha Nawal and Omar Javaid and wrote, “This movie was made by the most beautiful group of artists I have had the privilege to work with, and looking back now, it feels like almost like a fever dream. We made this film with sheer determination, and resourcefulness (jugaar) and to bring it into the world in this way is more than I could have hoped for.”

In Flames will be sharing the platform with a mix of emerging directors and established masters, some of whom have won Oscars. What an achievement for Pakistani filmmakers!