Stories of quiet survival: Sudasassi Furniss directs ‘Memories of a Burning Body’

Cinema | May 28th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

Filmmaker Antonella Sudasassi Furniss constructs an engaging sophomore feature with “Memories of a Burning Body,” selected by Costa Rica to be entered for consideration as a possible Oscar nominee for Best International Feature Film. While the movie would not go on to make the final roster of Academy Award hopefuls, its spot as an art house attention-getter was already secure. “Memories” won the audience award for best feature in the Panorama section of the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. Sudasassi Furniss, who also wrote and produced the movie, makes a compassionate statement supporting a sisterhood of previously silenced voices.

The logline of Giorgia Del Don’s early Berlinale coverage summarizes the essence of the film by describing it as an “emancipatory cry uniting different generations … held back by limits set by the patriarchy.” Sudasassi Furniss recorded audio testimonials and conversations with a trio of anonymous older women willing to open up and reflect —essentially for the first time — on a variety of challenges, traumas and eventual triumphs directly related to their personal journeys. The suffocating expectations governed by gender and social position inform each of the stories, which Sudasassi Furniss organizes and dramatizes with a composite character (depicted by a trio of performers) representing different ages and life stages.

Paying homage to the artistry and cinematic storytelling of heroes like Chantal Akerman, whose work is visually referenced several times throughout “Memories of a Burning Body,” Sudasassi Furniss begins her movie with a shot that exposes the filmmaking process by showing lead Sol Carabello (younger versions will eventually be played by Paulina Bernini Víquez and Juliana Filloy Bogantes) moving through the main domestic set while busy crew members place lights and prepare equipment. In combination with the voiced excerpts of the women we hear on the soundtrack, Carabello’s presence partly suggests the kind of bold blend of fiction and nonfiction devised by Clio Barnard for her brilliant 2010 documentary “The Arbor.”

Regressive approaches to sex education further delay the enlightenment that, Sudasassi Furniss seems to argue, can only be gained by reaching the status of septuagenarian. “Memories of a Burning Body” belongs to a group of films pondering gerontological concerns with a degree of dignity and curiosity rarely seen in an industry that usually makes comic sport of older people when not ignoring them entirely. A few critics have argued that the film’s lack of “connective tissue” and tendency to float from one topic or scene to another is a deficiency. I saw those elements as strengths.

Sudasassi Furniss comprehends the value of shaping and staging quotidian life events in a way that crystallizes their raw intensity. For example, the director chooses not to explicitly visualize the horror of marital rape endured over a lengthy time period, knowing that the spoken words we hear will reverberate with great power alongside images of an angry, frustrated and cruel spouse unconcerned with his wife’s feelings and ignorant regarding her own dreams and desires. By mostly avoiding any kind of literalization of sexual awakening, Sudasassi Furniss can focus instead on developing overarching themes that coalesce from the accumulated vignettes. We witness the glory of release, deliverance and salvation discovered through the eventual recognition of one’s self-worth.

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