The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Katia and Maurice Krafft were two volcanologists who gave their lives to filming volcanoes from as close as possible. They died in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen in Japan on 3 June 1991. The film is built from the footage they left. Werner Herzog directed and deliberately shaped it not as a biography but as a requiem: long volcano footage, sparse narration and a score by Ernst Reijseger. The project began with an idea from the producer Peter Lown and Professor Clive Oppenheimer. It was commissioned for Arte through Brian Leith Productions, and Oppenheimer introduced Herzog to the team at Sheffield DocFest in 2019. Herzog had already used the Kraffts in Into the Inferno in 2016; he agreed to direct on the condition that the film be a requiem. Production began in 2021, co-funded by A&E Networks, Bonne Pioche and Titan Films. It premiered at Sheffield DocFest in 2022 and won best documentary at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2023. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 88 percent from 8 reviews. The Telegraph called it mesmerising and gave it three stars out of five. Another documentary about the same couple, Fire of Love, directed by Sara Dosa, also appeared in 2022; the two films look at the same footage from different angles. Who it is for: viewers who watch documentaries for the images themselves and who like Herzog's register. Who it is not for: anyone wanting information and biography. The film is not trying to tell their life story and says so from the start.