– Icelandic filmmaker Ugla Hauksdóttir’s debut feature blends action and romantic melodrama in a disaster movie rooted in the reality of her native volcanic lands
Vigdís Hrefna Pálsdóttir and Pilou Asbæk in The Fires
Anyone who has pictured taking a holiday in Iceland amidst the geysers and the breathtaking landscapes might think twice about it after watching The Fires, which has just premiered at Vilnius’s Kino Pavasaris, within the SMART7 competition (see the news). Ironically, it perhaps does to Icelandic tourism the very damage that the security team in the film tries to avoid by not publicly disclosing the full truth about local volcanic activity. Based on the prescient novel of the same name by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, after the publication of which a series of eruptions occurred, and dedicated to the people who lost their homes in recent such events, The Fires stems from an existing reality: the constant threat posed by unpredictable soil tremors and deeper fluctuations of the Earth’s layers under this magnificent yet ominous island. The story is wrapped in a genre formula, which, of course, exaggerates the menace for the sake of suspense and thus could potentially scare audiences off, but at first glance, it might also attract adrenaline junkies.
In the opening scene, a girl explores the dark-grey, magmatic surface of her birthland with her father (a fleeting appearance by the iconic Ingvar Sigurðsson), a silver-tongued storyteller. In the following sequences, the grown-up version of the girl, Anna (Vigdís Hrefna Pálsdóttir), who has apparently inherited his passion for volcano science, is dragged around by people and helicopters to assess the threats posed by eruptions. However, her concerns and findings are downplayed in order to avoid sparking panic among citizens and visitors. Against the backdrop of a looming disaster, a passionate secret romance with a mysterious and attractive photographer (Pilou Asbæk) also blossoms, keeping her spirits alive amidst her stagnant marriage. The chemistry and tension between them escalate in parallel with the volcanic lava rising towards the top of the crater, and at the culmination, fires and emotions erupt as theories and commonly held beliefs explode – taking the logic of the screenplay down with them.
The combination of the two plotlines – the natural disaster and the familial one – is clearly conceived as a kind of synchronisation between the heroine’s turbulent inner world and “nonindifferent nature” (in the Eisensteinian sense), but it is stitched together too hastily and therefore ultimately falls apart. As exoticism and wild passion are squeezed up against each other, wide shots and drones roam this dangerous and seductive landscape in a National Geographic style, with pheromones flying all over the place – aiming to create a thrilling atmosphere. However, the love affair is so artificially grafted onto the story that this may be precisely why it ultimately leads nowhere, standing in stark contrast to the otherwise more streamlined form of the narrative. Ultimately, the film comes across as a product that is touristic in its treatment of Iceland and shaped by overexploited tropes typical of mainstream cinema, but it does not deliver the truly gratifying, cathartic experience that entertainment-seeking moviegoers usually pay for.
The Fires was produced by Iceland’s Netop Films, in co-production with Poland’s Madants. Its international sales are handled by the UK’s Bankside Films.
