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There have been a number of films which have been widely acclaimed and have struck the right chords, making them emerge as the best made films of present times. ‘Burning Sands’ is one of them. The film has an intense storyline which is gripping enough to keep you glued on to your seats till the end.
‘Burning Sands’ deals with the subject of hazing, which is rampant in most higher educational campuses. Here, the story revolves around the subject at an all-black university and how the fraternity takes steps to survive out of this brutal process, leading to a gripping plot. Director/co-scenarist Gerard McMurray has made a more conventional effort as compared to his debut film which faced a lot of outrage owing to its unconventional content last time as this film has a lot of titillation, comical moments and other light sequences which pull you out from the intensity of the film from time to time. This polished Netflix drama has a lot of storytelling energy and ideas, as its talented cast and intriguing subject never fail to entertain till the climax of the film. Jeremy Rudd is impressive with his performance and one can rate this as one of his best roles. He plays Christopher, one of the senior frat boys who’s rather controlling and mean to the freshmen that are looking to join the frat.
The film starts with premed student Zurich, aka Z (Trevor Jackson), whose father was an alumnus and dropped out of a frat. Six freshmen drive out to a forest in the middle of a freezing night, which is followed by a series of thrilling moments that never fail to keep the audiences engaged and asking for more. Some characters have been well-defined like the one of Alfre Woodard, who plays the history professor and Imani Hakim who plays Z’s girlfriend, who thinks his priorities are mixed up. Steve Harris as the college dean who keeps on encouraging Z to carry on with his Greek program is impressive. The entire star cast have proved their talent by portraying characters which look real. Be it Serayah as the aggressive student Angel, or Nafessa Williams as the highly sexed local fast-food employee Toya, or Rotimi as Lambda president Edwin and Christian Robinson, who plays the role of the meanest frat bro Big C. The film is overall a good watch and one should not miss out on this.
