Title – Fire of Love (2022) 

Director – Sara Dosa (The Last Season)

Cast – Katia Krafft, Maurice Krafft

Plot – Utilising personal footage of famed volcanic explorers Katia and Maurice Krafft, Fire of Love examines their unique lives and the power and majesty of the very thing that would bring about their demise. 

“If I could eat rocks, I’d stay in the volcanoes and never come down”

Review by Eddie on 12/07/2023

An entirely unique documentary experience conjuring up otherworldly images and a flow (forgive the pun) of a Werner Herzog feature, Sara Dosa’s fascinating feature Fire of Love is undoubtedly going to be a film like you’ve never seen before, a love story centred around the majestic yet dangerous world of volcanic exploration that was at the heart of explorers/researchers Katia and Maurice Krafft’s lives. 

One of the little films of 2022 that could, Fire of Love has found itself amongst the best reviewed and awarded documentaries of that calendar years crop of releases, as Dosa gets incredible access to the Krafft’s archive of home made tapes that document years upon years worth of globe spanning explorations they undertook studying, observing and being totally consumed by the volcanic world they both were in awe of, providing us now with some unforgettable and eye-opening accounts of natural occurrences the laymen person would have very little knowledge about. 

There’s no true narrative holding everything together here, in many ways Dosa is happy to just let the imagery and musings of the Krafft’s take hold, with only Miranda July’s sparingly used narration giving us another voice and by forgoing any other talking heads or deep dive into elements of the Krafft’s research, Fire of Love is content to let the central subjects and their obsession take centre stage throughout, giving viewers a sometimes frustratingly at arms length emotional experience but others a chance to be baptised by the world of our fearless duo. 

Working in their field for a number of decades, the Krafft’s were able to amass an unparalleled amount of unique and insightful documents of their studies and their subjects and it’s hard not too be moved and inspired by the power and fearsomeness of the volcanoes they captured on camera and whether it’s a scene of a lone figure traversing the barren landscape inside a volcanic crater, up close and personal footage of a volcano erupting to life or Katia or Maurice exploring areas decimated by recent activity, Fire of Love is a visual feast that gives big budgeted Hollywood blockbusters a run for their money in the sensory stakes. 

Heading towards a conclusion it very early on informs the audience of, where Fire of Love ends up may not be a surprise or as shocking as it may have been but despite its sometimes aimless nature, Fire of Love is a fitting tribute to two one off spirits and a eye-opening account of a world we still to this day understand very little about. 

Final Say – 

You’ve never meet two people like Katia and Maurice Krafft before and you’re unlikely to have ever seen sights like you will see in Dosa film with Fire of Love becoming a distinct documentary offering that is at times thrilling, awe-inspiring and full of eccentricities. 

3 1/2 rubber dinghy’s out of 5