The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft is a 2022 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog. The film is a tribute to the French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who were killed on June 3, 1991, by a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen, in Japan.

Content

The film is a celebration of the imagery captured by volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft. Designed as a 'requiem', the film is a non-traditional biography with long sections of volcano footage supported by music and very sparse narration.

Production

The film originated from a concept by Producer/Director Peter Lown and Professor Clive Oppenheimer. It was originally commissioned to Brian Leith Productions as a feature documentary for Arte until Oppenheimer introduced the team to Werner Herzog at Sheffield Documentary Film Festival in 2019. Herzog, who had already featured the Kraffts in Into The Inferno, revealed that he had long wanted to make a film about them too. Herzog agreed to direct the movie but insisted that it must be a 'requiem'. The film was eventually co-funded by A+E Networks and went into production in 2021, with Bonne Pioche and Titan Films joining the production.

Release

The film premiered at Sheffield DocFest in 2022. It won best documentary at Shanghai Film Festival in 2023. It was also screened in October 2022 at the 60th Viennale as part of the celebration of Herzog's 80th birthday and at Telluride Film Festival.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.00/10. A review on the website Cineuropa comments: "Rather than shoot a straightforward documentary, the director opted to arrange the couple’s footage like a “musical”. Unlike Fire of Love by Sara Dosa, Herzog's film is meant to be a requiem to them, fueled by heavy instrumental and choral music." The Telegraph found the film "mesmerising" and gave it 3 stars out of 5.

References

Related Werner Herzog films

• La Soufrière, a 1977 documentary film about the La Grande Soufrière volcano in Guadeloupe.
• Salt and Fire, a 2016 thriller film about the imminent eruption of a supervolcano in Bolivia.
• Into the Inferno, a 2016 documentary film exploring active volcanoes in Indonesia, Iceland and Ethiopia.