The Burning Season is the story of JB who runs the Luna Lake Resort, and Alena who though married has a long running affair with JB. Their one rule, it only happens at the resort, but what happens when they break that rule?

For a film about cheating The Burning Season is surprisingly intimate. The cast stays small, and the indoor sets promote a sense of comfort that makes you feel at home. While the outdoor shots are both gorgeous and isolating. To further enhance this the film has little to no music and instead chooses to focus on the natural sounds of the world. So if you need a quiet watch this is the perfect movie for that.

Admittedly, going into this movie, I was not into the idea of a story being told in reverse, but now I can see the appeal. At the beginning of the film I kept thinking to myself “god I fucking hate these two,” but as the film progressed my thoughts became a lot more complex.

And that’s the beauty of this movie, I don’t think I could ever like JB and Alena, but The Burning Season helps me understand them. I think a lot of that is down to the great performances by Jonas Chernick and Sara Canning who play JB and Alena respectively.

Jonas is smooth and impressive, we know from the start that he is eventually going to be a mess but as the film progresses we begin to see why he is the way he is. As for Sara, her performance is fire, in that you know that being round her would be cosy and enlightening, but if you got too close you’d be engulfed in her flames.

And as I’m mentioning Jonas and Sara then I should also mention their incredibly likeable partners played by Joe Pingue and Tanisha Thammavongsa. Both hold back but just add so much to the film.

Director Sean Garrity takes what could have been a very dull and by the books story and through his nonlinear choice of story telling gives us this fascinating puzzle. A puzzle that at its core The Burning Season is a film about trauma and how it can bind us in the most unhealthy of ways. Especially for those who have indirectly been affected by alcoholism and suffocating parents.

This one’s a fantastic watch and if you are at the Glasgow Film Festival I suggest you check it out.