One of our most favourite DVD labels in the world, Mondo Macabro, have a new DVD release coming shortly - the frankly wierd and wonderful Born of Fire, so here's the full low-down on their new release appearing on Region 1 DVD on 28th October 2009.
Over the years, the brains behind the label, Andy Starke, has been compiling the very best of cult weird cinema from around the world, including the hilarious Weng Weng title For Your Height Only, several very cool Japanese movies such as Female Prisoner: Caged and Naked Rashomon, obscure giallos such as The Killer Must Kill Again and complation DVDs of the very best of Bollywood horror.
Now to add to their catalogue (and we hope your home DVD shelves as well) comes Born of Fire, a beautifully filmed surrealist journey into arabic mythology, originally produced by Film Four, the film division of UK’s Channel Four TV channel and featuring UK actor Peter Firth.
The film was the second full length feature from French / Pakistani writer director Jamil Dehlavi, who had made waves on the festival circuit with his short film Towers of Silence and his controversial debut feature, The Blood of Hussain, had been screened on Channel Four.
Born of Fire is an ambitious and unusual film, produced at a time in British TV when innovation and experimentation were still prized aims. Yet even in such a context, this movie was an unusual work.
Dehlavi combines the experimental, mystical and political aspects of his earlier work within a tight narrative framework – and yet still manages to avoid the problem of “interpretation”. The film would appear to involve a conflict between light and darkness, between fire and water, between the past and the present; but beyond that it’s up to the viewer to decide. Over the years there have been many attempts to nail down the film’s “meaning”. Probably the best approach is to see that it works in a way that’s much closer to that of music than of normal narrative cinema. Like all of Jamil Dehlavi's work it’s highly visual. In that sense it’s pure cinema, its meaning growing out of the interplay between sound, image, color and light.
The film had a US theatrical and videotape release from Vidmark Entertainment in 1987, and now finally comes to Region 1 DVD, courtesy of Mondo Macabro. Order your copy now and prepare to be amazed.
More Information
For more information on this title, and many other cult classic gems from the label, visit the official Mondo Macabro website at www.mondomacabrodvd.com/.
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One of our most favourite DVD labels in the world, Mondo Macabro, have a new DVD release coming shortly - the frankly wierd and wonderful Born of Fire, so here's the full low-down on their new release appearing on Region 1 DVD on 28th October 2009.
