Fire of Love
**Seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
“Fire of Love” tells us two stories. One is of two volcanologists travelling the world studying volcanos, and one is a love story about two people whose careers threw them into similar directions, and they cannot imagine their life working out any better. Both are compelling individually, but in Sara Dosa’s film, the two are intertwined in a way that is profound, and powerful. Whether you see it to learn more about studying volcanos, or to see the lives of Katia and Maurice Krafft, you will be rewarded with a rich experience.
I couldn’t help but think about Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man” while watching “Fire of Love.” Part of that is because, like Timothy Treadwell, Katia and Maurice died doing what they love, at the hands of the thing they loved most in life, outside of one another. Part of that is also, like Treadwell, the Kraffts are responsible for most of the footage that Dosa uses to help tell their story. In the narration by Miranda July- a born narrator for this story- she praises their filmmaking prowess, much in the way Herzog does Treadwell in “Grizzly Man,” and it’s difficult not to agree with her; their purposes for shooting this footage was scientific more than cinematic, but it’s a treasure trove of powerful images for Dosa to comb through, and decide what matters most to her narrative about the couple. Like Treadwell, they gave their would-be biographer a road map on how best to present their life. (Sure enough, they are featured in Herzog’s 2016 documentary “Into the Volcano,” as well.)
Growing up, I was not consciously aware of whom Katia and Maurice were, but I have no doubt their work, and their footage, is some I learned from over the years in school. Seeing them, they are not only a passionately in-love romantic couple, but as scientists, they helped lay the groundwork for modern understanding of volcanos. One of the most heartbreaking stretches of the film is when they fail to convince the authorities of near Nevado del Ruiz in Columbia that they need to evacuate the locals before that eruption of that volcano in 1985, and much of the population died. In the words of the couple- read from journals throughout the film- you can sense the failure they feel at not being able to save people. There’s a sad irony to their work that’s illustrated- they value human life, but also love something that can extinguish it in a moment’s time. That they were able to continue afterwards, and even become more determined, speaks to their commitment to both humanity and their scientific pursuits.
This is a beautiful portrait of lives consumed by science, but guided by love. Love for each other, love for life, and love their work. That the latter took their lives is probably not only the only way they considered dying, but the only way they would have wanted to die. So long as it was together, nothing else would have mattered.
