Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Erol Afsin
Starring: Halima Ilter, Kida Khodr Ramadan, Nicolas Garin, Emir Kadir Taskin
Whenever a filmmaker on a budget requires a movie to play on a screen
within their film, nine times out of 10 they opt for George A.
Romero's Night of the Living Dead (usually the "They're coming to get you Barbara" scene). The reason
for this is more often than not down to economics: Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain and thus can be freely used. When Omar (Kida Khodr Ramadan) and Amal (Halima Ilter), the married protagonists of
writer/director Erol Afsin's It's Burning, settle down to watch Romero's film I rolled my eyes at its
predictability. But unlike so many filmmakers before him, Afsin's use of
Romero's film actually plays into his own movie's theme.
"I didn't see that coming," Omar exclaims at the famously downbeat climax
of the zombie masterpiece. Such an exclamation gestures at Omar's
innocence, that at this point in life he doesn't view the world through a
cynical lens, or perhaps he simply doesn't read or watch the news. It's Burning is based on a real life incident that made headlines in Germany but
is relatively unknown elsewhere. The movie will likely prove more
effective for non-German viewers unfamiliar with the details, and your
reaction to its shocking ending won't be dissimilar to Omar's. Even the
most cynical viewer will be jolted by this reminder of how
awful humans can be to one another.
Arab-Germans born in Germany to immigrant parents, Omar and Amal have
built an enviable life for themselves. They have a young son, Ahmad (Emir Kadir Taskin), and another child on the way. They live in a spacious apartment and
both hold jobs that allow for a comfortable life. But most importantly,
they're deeply in love with one another. Unlike the typical world-weary
movie dad, when Omar walks in the door of his home he instantly comes
alive, eager to kick off his shoes and embrace his wife and child. The
interactions between Omar, Amal and Ahmad are so natural you'll be
forgiven for wondering if Afsin stumbled across a real life family to cast
in his film.
Omar and Amal's content life is rocked when Amal takes Ahmad to his
favourite spot, a set of swings in a playground near their home. The
swings are occupied by a young girl and a white man, Franz (Nicolas Garin), who refuses to vacate the swing and make way for Ahmad. Initially
putting Franz's attitude down to plain rudeness, Amal is shocked when
Franz unleashes a xenophobic diatribe, accusing her of raising a future
terrorist in Ahmad. Amal makes to leave but a couple of white women
interject and call the police.
The incident, which Amal initially withholds from her husband until he
learns of it through local gossip, is brought to court. Franz is ordered
to pay a modest fine, and Omar and Amal think they can now move on. But
when Franz lodges an appeal, Omar and Amal are dragged back to court not
once, but twice, and as it seems justice may allude them, they begin to
question their place in the country they always considered home.
What makes It's Burning stand out from most movies that tackle racism is how deeply Afsim
cares about the people at the centre of his harrowing story. Omar and Amal
are fully developed characters rather than two-dimensional figures who
exist simply to be victims. Within minutes of the film's opening we feel
like we know who these people are, thanks largely to how Afsim focusses on
the relative mundanity of their lives in an admiring rather than
patronising way. The chemistry between Ramadan and Ilter as their
characters snuggle on the couch at the end of the day is off the
charts.
While Afsim ensures we like these people, he doesn't sugarcoat how they
react to their victimisation. Had this been made by a white filmmaker I
suspect they would portray Omar in an angelic, pacifist light, but Afsim
dares to show him give in to the worst aspects of masculinity. His male
pride wounded at not being able to protect his family, Omar heads out into
the night and tries to start a fight with the first white man he comes
across. Later he sits in shame as Amal plays back a video recording Ahmad
secretly made of Omar and a male friend debating whether they should
violently take the law into their own hands.
It's in the court scenes that It's Burning slips into more familiar and less nuanced territory. In these
sequences Franz and Amal are disappointingly reduced to mouthpieces for
their respective belief systems, the latter delivering a speech so
on-the-nose ("there's only one race, the human race") it makes
Chaplin's Great Dictator monologue seem open to interpretation. Perhaps I'm mistaken about
how the court system functions in Germany, but I didn't buy the judge
allowing Franz to make such prolonged, hate-filled speeches given their
irrelevancy to the case.
While It's Burning is focussed on a hate crime, it involuntarily makes a case against
the existence of such a definition. Had Franz simply been tried for a
general public disorder the case would have been cut and dry and Omar and
Amal wouldn't have been put through such an ordeal. Franz verbally abused
a woman and her child. That's the crime. In focussing on the racial
element, Franz is given an opportunity to make his case, employing the
sort of obfuscating speech beloved of right wing political figures and
YouTubers. Had Franz verbally abused a white German woman the case would
be straightforward and he would have no opportunity to talk his way out of
it. Designating Amal a victim of a hate crime ironically makes her a
victim twice over. The well-meaning white liberals who make such rules
have made her just as aware of her inequality as Franz's hate-filled
diatribes. Whether it's neo-Nazis or liberal do-gooders, white people just
can't seem to stop othering those who don't look like us.
