''Burning Sands'' is a 2017 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, directed by Gerard McMurray, from a screenplay by McMurray and Christine Berg. It stars Trevor Jackson,

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King ...

, Steve Harris,

Tosin Cole Tosin Cole (born 23 July 1992) is an American-born British actor. He is known for various roles in British television series and films. He began his on-screen career starring in '' The Cut'' and ''EastEnders: E20'', later securing a regular rol ...

, DeRon Horton and Trevante Rhodes. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2017, before being released on March 10, 2017, by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

Plot

Five young men pledge Lambda Lambda Phi Fraternity at the historically Black institution, Frederick Douglass University. Student Zurich leads the pledge class as they endure big brother hazing on campus and at line ups at fraternity house. The pledges balance their time in class with English professor Hughes and their new fraternity life of parties, sorority girls and dating. The pledge class learns the brotherhood mottos and bonds together because of or despite moral and physical hazing. Dean Richardson, a Lambda Phi alumnus, holds himself out as an example of the fraternity system and extols its virtues. He makes himself available to be told of pledge abuse but not far enough to break the fraternity code of silence and secrecy. One night the hazing goes too far and a big brother advises the pledge class to drop off a seriously injured pledge at the emergency room but to avoid the cameras. Despite the advice, the young neophyte fraternity brothers wait together at the hospital awaiting the fate of their friend, Frank. After seconds of waiting the doctor tells them that Frank died of a ruptured aorta artery. Zurich takes out his cell phone and calls his dad, realizing why his father never joined the fraternity, and the movie ends.

Cast

* Trevor Jackson as Zurich *

as Professor Hughes * Steve Harris as Dean Richardson *

as Frank * DeRon Horton as Earnest (Square) * Dominique Mari as Tiffany * Mitchell Edwards as Stephon * Jeremy Rudd as Christopher * Christian Robinson as Big Country * Trevante Rhodes as Fernander * Malik Bazille as Dwight * Octavius J Johnson as Ron * Rotimi Akinosho as Edwin * Serayah as Angel *

Nafessa Williams Nafessa Williams is an American actress. She is most known for her 2011 role as Nicole Gordon in the Meek Mill film ''Streets'', her 2011 role as Deanna Forbes on the ABC soap opera '' One Life to Live'', and her 2016 role as Dr. Charlotte Piel ...

as Toya * Imani Hakim as Rochon * Adriyan Rae as Candy * Racquel Bianca John as Joy * Chiké Okonkwo as Breyton

Production

In January 2016, it was announced Gerard McMurray would direct the film, from a screenplay by himself and Christine Berg, while Stephanie Allain,

Jason Michael Berman Jason Michael Berman is an American film producer and executive. He serves as the President of Mandalay Pictures, where he is responsible for developing and structuring financing for Mandalay's slate of independent films, in addition to packagi ...

of Mandalay Pictures,

Reginald Hudlin Reginald Alan Hudlin (born December 15, 1961) is an American film screenwriter, director, producer, and comic-book writer. Along with his older brother Warrington Hudlin, he is known as one of the Hudlin Brothers. From 2005 to 2008, Hudlin was P ...

and Shawn Knapp will serve as producers on the film alongside

. In January 2017, Common boarded the film as an executive producer and will contribute an original song to the film.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2017. It was released on March 10, 2017, by

Reception

''Burning Sands'' received positive reviews from film critics. It currently holds an 87% approval rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average rating of 63 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt5826432 2017 films 2017 independent films American drama films Films about fraternities and sororities Films shot in Virginia English-language Netflix original films 2017 directorial debut films Films about hazing 2010s English-language films 2010s American films