After doing a review for my favorite "Towers of Silence", I knew that I would write one for "Born of Fire", and I might continue to write for his titles released before Jinnah (1998). In this, we are dealing with Djinns, Iblis and Cosmology rooted in Islamic mythology. All of these elements have their place in Jamil Dehlavi's atmospheric outing funded by Channel 4.

The film, dressed in the guise of horror and Islam - but I'm not satisfied with the classification, I could perhaps consider this as a surreal Islamic fantasy drama. From the very opening shot, which ranks as one of the best intros, the movie gives its viewers a taste of what's to come. The story focuses on a female astronomer (Susan Crowley) and a flautist Paul Bergson (Peter Firth) who have identical visions, they foresee a fiery apocalypse. Now, they must confront the Master Musician who killed flautist's father to ward off the disaster with the help of the local priest Bilal (Stefan Kalifa). As the location for the 2nd half of the film, Dehlavi chooses Turkey as the setting, and soon it develops into a multi-layered narrative network with the dominant themes and is a visual trip from the first to the last second especially in the musical duel sequences.

The biggest problem with the film is the screenplay and the dialogues, it seems too close to fit in to the genre and lacks some of the genius writing that was present in Dehlavi's early films.

Do not expect a classic spoon-feeding tale of evil vs good, it is surely an absorbing experience that mixes various feelings, it is ambitious and somewhat confusing, and some will find it a tedious chore watching the film. Regardless, it depends on the treatment of the symbolism since the images speak for themselves. I'd recommend this to the fans of Sara Driver, Rafael Corkidi, Sergei Parajanov, Fernando Arrabal, Mario Bava, David Lynch, Tadeusz Konwicki, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Wojciech Has, Jean Rollin, Harry Kumel, Ken Russell, Miklos Jancso and Hans W. Geissendorfer.

The first half of the story was good almost perfect , the atmosphere the mystery I must admit it was scary and so interesting , but unfortunately it missed and flawed after the second half . I think the director lost and he didn't know what to do .

3/10

Born of Fire (1983) is pushed as being an "Islamic horror movie" but it has nothing to do with horror. Far from it, it's more of an opaque, religious/surrealist art film. What it is, is a metaphorical journey that examines the duality of good and evil in man.

A Flautist (Peter Firth) is having dreams of the end of the earth, he meets up with a bewildering astronomer (Suzan Crowley) who predicts the eruption of fire that will destroy the earth.

The locations in Turkey resemble some far away planet, complete with odd caves and strange mountains formed by wind and water. There's not much dialog, which helps tremendously in the amorphous and obscure details.

The Master Musician fills in as a tempter or crudely, a "devil", who lives in a fire cave underground. Nabil Shaban as The Silent One is an interesting character, as he is deformed but kind at heart.

The scenes have a strange artistic merit, especially to note is a skull transposed over a bleak moon. The film is along the lines of Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain (1973), El topo (1970)), Andrzej Zulawski (Na srebrnym globie (1988) On the Silver Globe (USA)) and Federico Fellini (Satyricon (1969)).

I didn't like the quotes from the Koran towards the end, as they diminish the enigmatical nature and reduce the ending to religious determinism. Other than that this is a unique and beautiful film.