Ashkal (2022)

A well-to-do, hard-working family man is found burnt to death among Tunis' sea of construction sites. As the fragmented police unit begins its investigation, another young housemaid is also found burned at another construction site just a few days later. The possibility of self-immolation, murder, terrorism, and even the supernatural, are explored as the investigation evolves with even more similar incidents with loose connections. Are these incidents connected? Is there someone chiefly responsible? Why are the least suspicious people found burnt to death without any other visible mark within a matter of days?

Ashkal is the Arabic term for shapes or forms. I think this is an intriguing choice for a title because there is the clever compositional use of building skeletons as frames and leading lines in addition to the other construction machinery and sites. A good hint when watching this movie is that the cranes point to the truth or the next clue. The title is also interestingly ironic since the antagonist has no form. It is hard to explain Ashkal. It is best understood if watched, though it may not be fully grasped in the end.

The movie masterfully uses framing, balanced (and often symmetrical) composition, lighting, sound design, and symbolism riddled with many red herrings and easter eggs from start to finish. If a good soup has layers of complex blended flavor, Ashkal would be a soup of multiple subtexts embedded in a powerful feature. In this battle between good and evil, righteous and corrupt, construction and destruction, day and night take turns, revealing new rounds of an escalating battle.

Ashkal is a portrayal of the promises that elude an Arab city in modern times. It shows the daily and seemingly permanent struggles revolving around class, power, trust, and an uncertain future (also driven by the investigation of the central phenomenon). The general context is not limited to an Arab city but also speaks on behalf of any burgeoning suburban neighborhood in a developing country. Ashkal shows the web that indirectly links all members of society, focusing on the disenfranchised and the enforcers of the civil order. Ashkal is also a story that blends the realistic and fantastic into a web of symbols that remains open for interpretation until the very end. The vivid scenes are intense and evoke many primal emotions – mostly on the darker end of the spectrum.

The movie takes us on a thrilling roller-coaster ride sitting on the edge. Everything starts as a foggy mystery but becomes even harder to pin once the haze clears out. Routine cop-work experience will not be enough to make sense of the matter at hand. The more evidence and clues pile up, the more intimidating the problem becomes.

Is there an end to this? Who will be next to be consumed by the fire?