In From the Ashes, a fire at a girls’ school raises the question of whether it was an accident or not. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The events of the film take place at a strict girls’ school in Saudi Arabia. The girls come to the school covered from head to toe.
Once all the girls enter the school, the school gates are locked from the outside. Inside the school premises, where there are no men, students and teachers can remove their burqas.
Every morning, teachers conduct inspections to ensure that the girls are following the school guidelines and not carrying prohibited items.
The school’s brightest student is Amira. She is chosen as the student of the month every month, which makes the other girls jealous.
Heba, Mona, and Mashael are the school’s troublemakers, who bully Amira every chance they get.
Mashael’s mother works at the school and lives on the premises with her family, and Mona’s father sternly monitors her movements and clothing.
Then, there is Rana, Amira’s best friend and the daughter of the school principal, Hayat. Rana is a good student, but her mother wants her to be the best.
Hayat and Rana’s father are separated and currently embroiled in a bitter lawsuit.
While Rana’s father wishes to resolve their issues outside of court, Hayat refuses, and she also prevents her daughter from speaking to her father.
Hayat frequently attends court sessions, leaving Vice-Principal Seham in charge. However, Seham lacks the authority to make independent decisions.
Seham keeps insisting that Hayat take action against the bullies, but Hayat never does, which makes the bullying situation worse at school.
One day, as Amira goes to the storeroom to retrieve a book, someone locks her inside. Panicking, Amira falls, hurts her head, and loses consciousness.
A few minutes later, a fire breaks out. It spreads through the wires and engulfs the entire building. The teachers rush to evacuate the students in time.
A pregnant teacher, Afaf, does not leave the building. Instead, she stays behind to help the students who are trapped inside.
Like most days, Hayat is at court rather than at school. Apart from informing her about the fire, Seham calls the education authority and the fire brigade.
Despite following the procedure, the doorman does not unlock the school gates, leaving the students and teachers trapped inside.
It is only when the firefighters come that the school gates are opened. By then, several students and teachers are injured.
Amira, who was locked inside the storeroom, dies, as her screams for help go unheard. Additionally, Afaf dies while saving her students.
The police investigate the incident, but they are unable to find what caused the fire or who locked Amira in the storeroom.
The fact that Amira was locked in the storeroom raises questions about whether the fire was an accident or an act of arson.
Hayat, who has been visiting all the injured students and teachers in the hospital, meets Mashael’s mother.
Mashael’s mother believes that Hayat will be able to find the person who locked Amira in the storeroom.
When the school reopens, Hayat takes it upon herself to find out what happened on the day of the fire, and Seham joins her in her investigation.
Ending explained:
The suspects
The school teachers are instructed to be stricter than ever before. They confiscate all the prohibited items that the students bring to school and tolerate no transgressions.
When Mona’s phone gets confiscated, Hayat and Seham see a text conversation that hints that Mona, Heba, and Mashael were behind the fire.
It turns out that the three girls were talking about burning a candle, and they prove it to the principal. However, Hayat still suspects them.
The three students used to torment Amira in all kinds of ways, which included locking her in a classroom.
Hayat overlooked their actions, but now, Hayat is determined to find the person responsible for Amira’s death.
Friends turning on each other
Hayat speaks to Mona, Heba, and Mashael separately in the hope of uncovering the truth by getting one of them to reveal something.
All three girls had motives to harm Amira, as they believe she snitched on them on various occasions.
While failing to obtain any valuable information from Mona and Mashael, she succeeds in turning Heba against her friends.
Once, Heba and Mashael were caught together in the washroom. The two of them thought that it was Amira who reported them.
Hayat now tells Heba that Mona, and not Amira, reported them, and just like that, Heba reveals Mona and Mashael’s motives for killing Amira.
This results in Mona and Mashael telling Hayat that it was Heba who stole Amira’s book that day, which is why Amira went to the storeroom to get a new one.
They also reveal that Heba had the opportunity and time to lock Amira in the storeroom when the fire started.
Hayat expels all three of them. On top of that, Heba is charged with intimidation and manslaughter.
Rana’s confession
Since Amira’s death, Rana has not been able to sleep. Her best friend’s death leaves a huge impact on her.
Amira wanted to gift Rana a painting, and she had asked her father to make it. After her death, her father finishes the painting and brings it to Rana’s house.
Upon seeing the painting, Rana can no longer hide her guilt and confesses to her grandmother that she was the one who locked Amira in the storeroom.
Rana, who was constantly pressured by her mother to be the best student, wanted her name to be on the list of honor.
Fearing that her teacher would choose Amira once again, she locked Amira in the storeroom. The school caught fire then, and Amira died.
Rana’s grandmother does not let her tell anyone the truth, but when Rana finds out that Heba is being punished for her crime, she tells her mother everything.
It is then revealed that Hayat already knew the truth. On the day of the fire, Rana had told Mashael’s mother about Amira being locked in the storeroom.
In the hospital, Mashael’s mother talked to Hayat about the same. Hayat then threatened to fire her and expel her daughter if she revealed the truth to anyone.
Hayat started investigating not because she wanted justice for Amira but because she wanted to blame her daughter’s crime on someone else.
Rana regrets locking Amira in the storeroom and blames her mother for making her feel like a failure, which ultimately led to her causing her best friend’s death.
Rana decides to turn herself in. She also reflects on never standing up for Amira when she was bullied at school every day and believes she deserves to be punished.
Rana then contacts her father and asks him to take her to the police. Rana confesses to killing Amira, and Heba is released from prison.
The consequences of thoughtless actions
Following Rana’s confession, Hayat loses her job, and Seham becomes the school’s principal.
Heba, Mona, and Mashael’s lives are ruined after their expulsion. Mashael’s family no longer lives on school premises. Heba becomes a drug dealer, and Mona has to live under her father’s oppression.
It is revealed that on the day of the fire, Seham caught Mona and Mashael smoking on school grounds.
She did not report the two girls when they pleaded with her to give them one last chance. After sending the girls to class, Seham smoked the cigarette she had confiscated.
Seham then heard a loud bang from the storeroom, as Amira had fallen inside at that very moment.
Hearing the noise, Seham threw away the cigarette without stubbing it out. It was this cigarette that started the fire, but nobody found out about it.
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