Cult Cinema: Born of Fire (1987) - Reviewed

Courtesy of Indicator

Pakistani-French director Jamil Dehlavi first burst onto the film stage with his 1980 drama The Blood of Hussain only to immediately flee his homeland for England after the then-Pakistani leader General Zia-ul-Haq banned the film outright.  His first English-language feature film, Born of Fire, a kind of mythic and fantastical horror film steeped in Islamic cosmology including but not limited to djinns, dervishes and Iblis (or Satan) himself.  

Written and directed by Jamil Dehlavi and produced by then-budding British film company Film Four, the film stars Peter Firth and Suzan Crowley in a film that evokes a plethora of increasingly macabre and rocky imagery, music and successfully perches itself atop an empire of films that gleefully defy straightforward categorization. 

 
Professional flautist Paul Bergson (Peter Firth) who is on a lifelong quest to solve the mysterious death of his renowned flautist father, crosses paths with an astronomer (Suzan Crowley) who reports strange solar activity involving volcanic blasts and apocalyptic visions of a skull turning the skies into deep orange.  Their kindred recurring nightmares which might have something to do with a demonic entity known as the Master Musician (Oh-Tee) lead them to a trip to Turkey where they counter a mute but devoted dervish (Children of Men’s Nabil Shaban) who may hold the key dividing our world with a metaphysical and spiritual netherworld. 
 
While not overtly a horror film in the traditional sense, demanding a trusty guide to interpret Dehlavi’s mixture of British filmmaking and distinctly Middle Eastern mythology, Born of Fire taken at face value is one of the wildest cinematic accomplishments of the 1980s.  Given a miniscule theatrical run initially before languishing in VHS Hell for decades before UK based label Indicator finally granted it a blu-ray disc release, from start to finish you are enraptured by the peculiar sights and sounds playing out onscreen and baffled by what it ultimately really means. 

 
Visually the film is jaw droppingly beautiful even when it gets increasingly strange if not grotesque including but not limited to a bizarre birthing scene of an insect like creature, shot ornately on location in Turkey by Letter to Brezhnev cinematographer Bruce McGowan.  The score by none other than Rawhead Rex composer Colin Towns is suitably mysterious and orchestral, adding to the already peculiar environments and natural phenomena of the Turkish locations.  

The two main performers Peter Firth and Suzan Crowley are generally good if not a little thankless, but Oh-Tee as the dreaded Master Musician and disabled Jordanian actor Nabil Shaban as the mute but loyal dervish all but completely grab the film out from under Firth and Crowley.
 
Though largely wordless, Oh-Tee and Shaban give astonishing physical and emotional performances with some wild visual effects shooting fire out of Oh-Tee’s eyes and an extraordinary sequence of Shaban crying out to the heavens before engaging in a spiritual rite intended to repel the Master Musician.  While Shaban doesn’t utter one line of dialogue in Born of Fire, his screen presence and emotions portrayed onscreen aren’t easily forgotten and strike a universally appealing chord with the viewer.  If there’s one character we the audience are inclined to rally behind, it is unquestionably Shaban’s. 

 
Though many Western viewers emerged baffled by the indecipherable experience, the astonishing and apocalyptic vistas resembling a kind of Hell on Earth sear themselves into your psyche with the slightest of ease.  Moreover, it put the wholly original and unique cinema of Jamil Dehlavi on the world stage whether audiences understood the mythic supernatural story or not.  

You may ask why see a film you know full well you’re not going to understand due to vast cultural differences?  Well, in this particular case it represents a truly wild and untamed cinematic beast whose misunderstood and still largely uncharted powers have the ability to transport you to places you’ve never been.  Dehlavi’s distinctly Middle Eastern horror vision isn’t going to click with most people but you’d be hard pressed to say you’ve ever seen anything remotely like this before.

--Andrew Kotwicki

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