Word Street Journal

Saudi Arabia’s recent creation, From the Ashes, is now streaming on Netflix. The Movie is inspired by a true and tragic incident.

In this blog, I will be exploring its ending in detail. Precisely, I have explained the last thirty minutes thoroughly.

The point of the beginning is when Hayat is in the process of investigating the death of Amira by questioning the bullies, Heba, Mashael, and Mona.

You can read my review of the film here.

From the Ashes Detailed Ending Explained

Hayat continues grilling the three girls and comes to know about Mashael selling cigarettes to students. 

When asked about the same, the girl says she just did it one time. The principal further questions if she knows who drew Amira on the blackboard to tease her a few days ago. 

Mashael puts the blame on Heba. 

We are shown the visuals of a crying Amira as a result of bullying. She is taken out of the classroom by Ms. Seham. 

Mashael follows them to see what’s happening and later finds Ms. Wedad hugging Amira and kissing her on the forehead. 

It gives rise to suspicion in her mind regarding the teacher’s intentions. 

However, while she narrates the incident, Hayat clears her doubts calling the hug a mere consolation offered by Ms. Wedad after the bullying made Amira cry. 

Instead, she puts the blame for Mashael’s reservations on her hate for Amira, which is outrightly denied by Mashael. 

The principal again shuffles her memory and asks her about the time when Amira reported the three of them for cheating during a class test. 

Back then, when Amira had asked the trio to stop cheating, Heba had sarcastically told her to shut up or else she would glue her lips together to make her quiet. 

When the teacher found a crib sheet beneath Mona’s desk, she ordered her and Heba to go and stand by the board. 

She then asked Amira if Mashael was also involved with them. The class topper nodded her head.

Hence, because of Amira, Mashael was punished by the teacher. Hayat uses the incident as bait to seek the truth from her. 

However, Mashael denies her accusations. She calls herself a person who’s good at heart and doesn’t hold any grudges. 

Hayat angrily lashes out at the girl saying they only hated and bullied Amira because she was an excellent student. 

Before Mashael can reply, the principal tells her to get out of the cabin. 

We are then shown a dream in which Rana is playing with Amira in the classroom and the stickers they are playing with suddenly catch fire. 

Soon, there is fire all around and that’s when Rana wakes up. She catches her breath as her grandmother sits beside her to calm Rana down. 

The former asks if she is worried about something while the latter replies by asking how long she has been asleep. 

The grandmother answers saying she had slept right after taking the pill and puts her back to sleep again. 

Heba gets into an argument with Ms. Wedad and yells at her disrespectfully. 

Hearing the commotion, the principal walks up to the scene and scolds Heba while directing Ms. Seham to write a detailed report. 

Rana wakes up and sees Amira’s father exiting from the main gate of their house. She goes to her grandmother and asks for the reason behind his visit. 

The old lady unwraps a painting he had brought as a gift for Rana. Before passing away, Amira had asked her dad to paint a special drawing for Rana as her birthday gift. 

After looking at the beautiful picture, Rana gets emotional and breaks down. She reveals to her grandmother that it was she who had locked Amira in the storeroom on the day of the fire.

Why Did Rana Lock Amira in the Storeroom?

She was worried that Ms. Wedad might choose Amira’s essay as the winner and write her name on the list of honor.

However, she wanted to win the competition to fulfill her mother’s expectations. 

On the day of the fire, she overheard Amira asking for the storeroom keys from Ms. Wedad to get a math book from there.

Rana then followed her friend right to the place and noticed that she had left the key on the lock after entering the storeroom.

She utilized the same to her benefit and locked the girl inside. Rana never intended to kill Amira.

All she wanted was her mother’s validation. Amira not being in the classroom would have meant her not being able to submit her essay, which would automatically put her out of the race.

However, Rana’s grandmother calls her confession a mere hallucination caused by the sleep medications.

The girl brushes aside her words and says she lied to the police because she was afraid.

Now, she feels guilty for causing her friend’s death and wishes for her hands to be cut off.

The old lady warns her to never repeat her words in front of anyone else, realizing the glaring significance of her confession.

She even tells her to forget that she ever told any of it to her grandmother and takes her to bed for another round of sleep.

On the other hand, Hayat calls Heba to her office.

She talks about her hatred for Amira and that the whole school was aware of the same, including her close friends.

Trying to create a rift between her partners in crime, she makes a stunning revelation.

Once, Heba was caught hiding in the washroom with Mashael. She thought that it was Amira who had reported them to the teachers.

However, Hayat shows her the complaint register and Heba comes to know it wasn’t Amira but Mona, her friend, who had snitched on her that day.

The principal lights the flame of provocation soon after by planting doubts regarding Mona’s liking for Amira.

This shocks Heba. She falls into the trap and tells everything to the principal.

She begins by calling Mona a hypocrite and then goes on to state that she is the one who hates Amira the most.

Heba mentions that once Mona got in trouble due to Amira for going out with Mashael and Saad.

Hayat asks her to further explain the story. Reluctant at first, Heba begins eventually…

How Did Mona Get in Trouble for Going Out with Mashael and Saad?

Saad was Mashael’s boyfriend and last year, she introduced Mona to one of Saad’s friends. Soon, she got into a relationship with him.

Thereafter, both the girls started skipping school to meet their respective boyfriends.

Amira was aware of their mischievous adventures. One day, when the duo got late for school, she got worried and reported them to Ms. Seham, who made a big deal out of it.

Consequently, Mona’s father got her married elsewhere. 

When she exits the room, Hayat calls Mona and Mashael once again.

She mentions the Saad incident and says they had every right to be angry with Amira.

The principal calls Mona’s dad harsh, talking about his action of marrying her off, which didn’t last long as she got divorced within two months.

According to the school records, they only skipped school for one day. Hayat says she wouldn’t have known about their actions had Heba not told her.

It has put them under the scanner and they are still suspects of pushing Amira to death.

She asks Mashael why Heba would have revealed their secrets to her. The principal’s provocation works once again.

Mashael answers her saying the only reason behind her actions was Heba wanting to put the suspicion off her.

Hayat says Heba is not accused of anything in particular and her hate for Amira is the only motive.

There was no proof of her going to the storeroom on the day of the incident. Possibly, she would get away, leaving the two of them as prime suspects.

Sensing danger, Mona tells her that it was Heba who tore Amira’s math book, which forced her to go to the storeroom in the first place.

Nevertheless, since Mashael has already testified that Heba was in the washroom with her, there is no proof that she was in the storeroom at that time.

Hayat calls Heba in her office in the presence of the other two girls. 

She tells them that she would present all the information obtained to the police and slides in a provocative dig at Mashael and Mona by saying they would be in trouble if the cops looked into motives.

This triggers Mashael and she reveals that Heba didn’t instantly go to the washroom after the class.

She left the classroom before her and entered the bathroom after a while she did.

The principal asks whether that gave her enough time to go to the storeroom and lock Amira.

Mashael nods in ayes. This infuriates Heba and a string of blame games begins with the three students engaging in a heated argument.

Heba says Mashael should be thankful that she agreed to be friends with her since she is the daughter of the cleaning lady.

Hayat puts an end to their wrangle by announcing that all three of them are expelled from the school.

Ms. Seham walks into her office after the students leave. Hayat apologizes to her for not acting on her earlier complaints of bullying.

She feels remorseful as, in her opinion, bullying was the reason behind Amira’s death.

She had never imagined that her leniency would lead to a tragedy of this sort.

The police arrest Heba while Mona’s father beats her as she is rusticated from the school.

Why Did the Cops Arrest Heba?

Heba was made the primary culprit in the death of Amira as she not only had the motive but also her alibi was shady.

It was possible that she first went to the storeroom to lock Amira before going to the washroom.

Mona and Mashael were not detained because their alibis were not questionable even though they had a bigger motive than Heba, who was charged with intimidation and manslaughter.

Rana watches the news of Heba getting arrested on the television. She asks her mother about the reason behind the same.

Her grandmother interrupts in between trying to avoid them talking together.

She fears if the conversation went ahead, Rana would confess to locking Amira in front of Hayat.

The old lady asks her about her medicines and breakfast to somehow stop the duo from talking.

However, Rana has the final laugh as she tells her mother what actually happened that day.

The real shocker comes when Hayat replies saying she was already aware of it.

Rana and her grandmother are left stunned to the core upon hearing the disclosure. 

When Hayat went to meet Marzouka, Mashael’s mother, in the hospital, she told her that only Rana knew who had locked Amira in the storeroom. But…

How Did Marzouka Know About Rana Locking Amira?

When everybody was trying to run for their lives during the fire, Marzouka, like most of the school staff, was busy rescuing students.

She asked Rana to come down along with her to safely exit the building.

However, in the heat of the moment, Rana told her that they also needed to save Amira, who was in the storeroom.

Though she didn’t say how her friend reached the storeroom or who locked her in, it was enough for Hayat to join the threads.

To save her daughter, Hayat threatened Marzouka with Mashael’s future, her rising offenses in the school, her friendship with troublemakers, etc.

She also pushes her into a corner with the mention of contraband in her room, the catalog of boys, and their poor financial background.

Hayat had enough reason to fire her from the job if she tried to do anything silly. 

She ordered her to stick to Rana’s version of the events, where she told the police that she was with Marzouka during the fire, carrying a girl who had passed out. 

A disturbed Rana tries to reason with her mother as to why she made Heba suffer for something she didn’t do.

Initially, Hayat says that Heba deserves to be punished for her other vile, hateful, and vicious acts.

But Rana is adamant that she shouldn’t have been made a scapegoat since she didn’t do anything to kill Amira.

Hayat counters her narrative by saying Amira died because her time had come.

If not in the storeroom, she would have died elsewhere.

When Rana pinches her further for her illogical words, Hayat gets angry and stands up from the sofa.

She tells the girl that she covered up her stupidity and failure. An emotional Rana says she was only a failure in her mother’s eyes.

It was Hayat who made her a failure by burdening her with expectations to justify her being the daughter of the principal.

She wanted to be the best to satisfy Hayat. Therefore, she committed the biggest blunder of her life locking Amira in the storeroom.

Her mother made her do it. Back in her bedroom, Rana emotionally looks at the painting gifted to her by Amira’s father.

She then removes her bandage and calls her dad, who takes her to the police station.

Soon, she is lodged in the prison and Heba is freed. On her way out, Heba asks her why she turned herself in.

Rana replies saying her mistake is bigger than any made by the trio of Heba, Mona, and Mashael.

It was the guilt that made her surrender in front of the police even when the easier way was to keep living life as it is.

She says she wants to serve time in jail because she never stood up against the bullying faced by Amira.

The onlooker of crime is as much responsible as the perpetrator.

The scene cuts to the school and we see Hayat leaving with her stuff. Ms. Seham becomes the new principal of the school.

What Happens to Mona and Mashael in the End of From the Ashes?

Since both of them were suspended, Mona takes up sewing at home while Mashael probably starts selling contraband on the streets.

What Started the Fire in From the Ashes?

We are shown in the end that Mona and Mashael were trying to light a cigarette near the storeroom on the day of the incident.

They were caught by Ms. Seham, who took the lighter and cigarette from the duo after scolding them badly.

She let them go with a warning. However, as soon as the girls left, she smoked the ciggy.

When Amira fell alongside the shelf in the storeroom, the sound of the collision scared Seham.

She feared getting seen by someone. In a rush, the teacher left the place, throwing the cancer stick on the ground without nullifying it.

The inflammable material in the surroundings quickly caught fire from the burning cigarette.

Therefore, it was Ms. Seham who caused the fire in From the Ashes.

Why Did Hayat Launch an Investigation?

Hayat knew from the beginning that her daughter was the one who had locked Amira in the storeroom.

That’s why she launched an internal investigation and put herself in charge.

She needed someone with a motive and shady alibi to shift the blame on them.

Heba, Mona, and Mashael perfectly matched the criteria. Since she had a deal with Mashael’s mother, Hayat needed to clear her name.

Eventually, she chose Heba to take the brunt of Amira’s death. 

Is From the Ashes Based on a True Story?

The movie states that though it is inspired by a true story, certain aspects have been fictionalized for storytelling purposes.

Any similarity to actual persons or events is not intended. As vague as this might sound, it is what it is. 

Nevertheless, I did some digging and found out that From the Ashes is based on the 2002 Mecca girls-only school fire.

Back then, a fire occurred at Mecca Intermediate School No. 31. It started from the top floor, apparently due to an unattended cigarette.

15 students had died and over 50 were injured.

Saudi’s religious police i.e., the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) stopped the girls from leaving the school premises since they were not wearing ‘modest clothing.’

People from the committee also prevented emergency from entering the school for the same reason.

Maybe, some students could have been saved if religious policing had not been done.