Katia and Maurice Krafft in a scene from ‘Fire of Love’ | Photo Credit: Disney+Hotstar
After attending an anti-war protest in Paris to pressure the US government to reconsider its military operations in Vietnam, Catherine ‘Katia’ Conrad and Maurice Paul Craft, volcanoes weary of humans’ fickle pursuit of power To chase the explosions leave modern city life behind and study them; He tried to tame a phenomenon that until then had defied logic.
“Alone, they could only dream of volcanoes. Together, they could reach them. fire of love There is a romantic story between a couple and their obsession with rock giants.
Fire Of Love (English)
Director: Sara Dosa
mould: Maurice Kraft, Katya Kraft
runtime: 94 minutes
Summary: Life story of volcanoes Maurice and Katia Kraft
His lifelong affair with volcanoes began when he camped near Stromboli on his honeymoon and photographed its near-continuous eruptions. Fascinated, he continued to follow the lava and ash around the world making friends in foreign lands and making a name for himself in the volcanology discipline. Often the first to reach the site of the explosion, the French couple would measure, catalog and document the event for posterity and it is this archival footage that forms the foundation of the documentary.
Miranda July does a great job of preserving her emotion in her narration and conveying it to the audience, and the occasional animation fits easily into the mood and tone of the archival footage.
To understand volcanoes we need to understand Maurice and Katia and vice versa. They complemented each other even in moments of conflict and disagreement. Maurice was a naive geologist with curly hair who traveled on lecture tours, worked with his video cameras, took pleasure in motion and did not think twice before going down a river of sulfuric acid on a 100-franc rubber boat, While Katia, the experienced geochemist worked with the still images, stayed back to analyze the data and bring a share of rationality to her adventures. However, the love they share subdues the volcanoes; In one instance when Katia is busy explaining his operations she remarks, “I follow him because if he is about to die I would like to be with him.” In another instance, Maurice cooks eggs on freshly erupted lava and in the process unwittingly domesticates the planet’s burning embers.
He was cautiously optimistic when visiting volcanoes and treated them as he would any other human being, listening to their complaints and understanding their anger. This provoked volcanologists to classify volcanoes into two different categories – they call volcanoes with red lava as friendly and docile while those with gray ash are called “killers”. His commitment to understanding volcanoes and his firsthand description of eruptions engineered evacuation strategies and his video tutorials inspired governments to take action in areas with active volcanoes.
Even in the face of death, the couple embraced the volcanoes with all their might. After devoting their lives to studying “killer” volcanoes, they would die on the edge of one, like Maurice.
Pyaar Pyaar Aag is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.