Born of Fire |
  • UK • 1987 • 84m •    • Directed by: Jamil Dehlavi. • Starring: Peter Firth, Suzan Crowley, Stefan Kalipha, Oh-Tee, Nabil Shaban, Jean Ainslie, Peter Penry-Jones, Morris Perry, Richard Bebb, Ziya Derien, Tamer Eshel, Ismet Arasan, Cemal Uzunoglu. • Music by: Colin Towns.    A musician searches for the Master Flautist, a supernatural creature who is planning to blow up the world.
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Review:
The film, dressed in the guise of horror and Islam - but I'm not satisfied with the classification, I could perhaps consider this as a surreal Islamic fantasy drama. From the very opening shot, which ranks as one of the best intros, the movie gives its viewers a taste of what's to come. The story focuses on a female astronomer (Susan Crowley) and a flautist Paul Bergson (Peter Firth) who have identical visions, they foresee a fiery apocalypse. Now, they must confront the Master Musician who killed flautist's father to ward off the disaster with the help of the local priest Bilal (Stefan Kalifa). As the location for the 2nd half of the film, Dehlavi chooses Turkey as the setting, and soon it develops into a multi-layered narrative network with the dominant themes and is a visual trip from the first to the last second especially in the musical duel sequences.
The biggest problem with the film is the screenplay and the dialogues, it seems too close to fit in to the genre and lacks some of the genius writing that was present in Dehlavi's early films.
Do not expect a classic spoon-feeding tale of evil vs good, it is surely an absorbing experience that mixes various feelings, it is ambitious and somewhat confusing, and some will find it a tedious chore watching the film. Regardless, it depends on the treatment of the symbolism since the images speak for themselves. I'd recommend this to the fans of Sara Driver, Rafael Corkidi, Sergei Parajanov, Fernando Arrabal, Mario Bava, David Lynch, Tadeusz Konwicki, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Wojciech Has, Jean Rollin, Harry Kumel, Ken Russell, Miklos Jancso and Hans W.
Review by samxxxul from the Internet Movie Database.
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