Movie Info
Movie Name: Fire of Love
Studio: Sandbox Film (II)/Cottage M/Intuitive Pictures
Genre(s): Documentary
Release Date(s): January 20, 2022 (Sundance)/July 6, 2022 (US)
MPAA Rating: PG
A childhood love and fear
Katia Conrad and Maurice Krafft were brought together by a love of volcanos. Together, they studied the destructive and powerful nature of the eruptions…but also found their work could help save people and educate people on the importance of volcanos. As the volcanologists travel the globe exploring the explosive nature of the earth, they chronicle their work for the future and the future of the world.
Written and directed by Sara Dosa, Fire of Love is a documentary film. The movie explores the lives of Katia Krafft (April 17, 1942-June 3, 1991) and Maurice Krafft (March 25, 1946-June 3, 1991). It premiered at Sundance and received positive reviews. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
Growing up, you always expected to deal with volcanos a lot more than you ever will. The floor is lava, lava threatens your toys, and explosions rock your imagination as you play with friends. Katia and Maurice Krafft never gave up that imagination, and now everyone can see it played out.
Venture into the world of volcanos!
Fire of Love is a track of Maurice and Katia’s lives in a secondary story to their work. It gives a little background on each volcanologist before they met, but it primarily focuses on their lives after they married and began to explore the world. The movie paints them as a very connected couple, but also primarily presents them from what they said and told others…including disagreements on how to approach the danger of volcanos. Regardless, they vowed to face the volcanos together and followed each other into danger willingly.
The movie brings up a lot of ideas of risk vs. reward. Maurice is the riskier of the two (which seems to get on the nerves of Katia) and does some things that feel foolish and more of a showboat move than logic. As stated by the movie however, both Maurice and Katia are trying to sell and finance their research and people want to see volcanos up close. Even if the work seems risky, their knowledge of volcanos does serve to save lives.
This is “far away” in comparison to other times…
What makes the movie work is the footage which was largely captured by the two on their adventures. The film has a narrator but there is not any new footage or interviews to build on the story. Despite being “old” footage, it is fantastic looking and demonstrates what someone might consider risky behavior. You have the Kraffts feet from lava and even playing with cooling lava through their fireproof suits. It is everything you expected as a kid and everything you also feared about volcanos.
The documentary clearly states at the beginning that Katia and Maurice were killed near the beginning of the film and that it is more of an homage to them and their work. The movie shows scientists that are more along the lines of Indiana Jones than lab and science workers, and that is always a good reminder that people can be both. Volcanos continue to induce fear in me, but they also create wonder…and Fire of Love dives deep into both.
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