Fire in the Mountains
#9 of Sundance 2021
<PERSON> feature film debut, Fire in the Mountains, which he wrote and directed is a sublime examination of the friction between tradition and modernity. It is a great deal more nuanced than that well-worn premise would suggest, allowing for his characters, no matter their view, to feel fully three-dimensional as he examines how their steadfast views conflict with their commitment to and love for one another. <PERSON> (an extraordinary <PERSON>), <PERSON> (<PERSON>), <PERSON>'s sister (<PERSON>), and their two children, <PERSON> and <PERSON> (<PERSON> <PERSON> and <PERSON>, respectively) all live in the same house, a small ancestral home passed down in <PERSON>'s family nestled in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand Province. When the family takes the wheelchair-bound <PERSON> into town for a doctor's visit, the physician recommends physiotherapy, which becomes a source of financial pressure for the family. 295
Simultaneously, after receiving guidance from his guru (a spiritual leader in the Hindu tradition) that he must perform a ritual sacrifice to help <PERSON> recover, <PERSON> objects strongly to <PERSON>'s treks to the doctor, instead, in favor of ritual and prayer. This forms the central conflict of the film and <PERSON> focuses, with great precision and compassion, on <PERSON>'s struggle to sacrifice and endure to provide for her family and do the best she can for her son.
Full review coming to Talk Film Society soon.
<PERSON> feature debut is an effective piece both as an examination of the clash between modernity and tradition and as a vehicle for the extraordinary <PERSON>. It allows for its characters to exist as three-dimensional people with faults and contradictions as we all do. Visually, it is stunning too, there are small, sensual details, like the drip of gulab jamun syrup on cold stone steps or the froth of bath water being swept into a drain. It's well-worth seeing and one of the best from Sundance I've seen thusfar. 529