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Born Of Fire
[Mondo Macabro]
1983; color
Directed by Jamil Dehlavi
Starring: Peter Firth, Suzan Crowley, Stefan Kalipha, Oh-Tee & Nabil Shaban
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Born Of Fire is billed as the first - and only - Islamic horror film. Seeing as how my knowledge of Islam in general is pretty minimal, and my knowledge of Islamic mythology is completely non-existent, I can't really comment on that one way or the other. What I can offer, though, is that Born Of Fire isn't a horror movie in the traditional Western sense but it definitely fits in with Mondo Macabro's ongoing efforts to bring us "The Wild Side Of World Cinema." It almost plays out as an art house offering, with lingering shots of some ancient remote corner of Turkey (where most of it was filmed) and long stretches with no dialogue. The plot itself is completely original, centering around a concert flautist and an astronomer. In the beginning of the movie she's in her observatory, watching an eclipse when a skull passes in front of the sun rather than a moon; we don't know if she sees what the viewer just saw as well or if she just sees the moon but she seems awfully disturbed either way. She then immediately goes to a concert hall where the flautist is performing. Except he suddenly has to stop performing because he keeps hearing other music in his head and having strange visions he doesn't understand. She goes backstage, introduces herself, sees the look of confusion on his face and says 'You heard it too...' From then on these two are pretty much joined at the hip, either psychically or physically. Almost immediately after this, through a strange series of events, the flautist ends up in Turkey searching for someone called the 'Master Musician.' It turns out his father (also a concert flautist) went on the same journey years earlier and died there under mysterious circumstances. The flautist meets up with an Islamic man who becomes his de facto guide and also offers vague spiritual / mythological insight to the increasingly bizarre stuff going on. Back at home, the astronomer is working on a theory that the eclipse caused some sort of turmoil on Earth that's made a long-dormant volcano in Turkey erupt. She thinks it's a sign the world is literally going to end, and goes to Turkey to investigate. And, of course, the volcano is in the exact area where the flautist is. The two meet up and things get even stranger. Eventually we learn that the master musician is actually some sort of evil spirit, or possibly a demon, and the flautist must fight an epic battle with him that will determine the fate of the Earth - and it's a flute-off! I really don't want to delve into the plot any more because Born Of Fire is so off the charts that it really needs to be seen to get the full experience.
—the Kommandant
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