Pakistani-French director Jamil Dehlavi first burst onto the
film stage with his 1980 drama The Blood of Hussain only to immediately
flee his homeland for England after the then-Pakistani leader General Zia-ul-Haq
banned the film outright. His first
English-language feature film, Born of Fire, a kind of mythic and
fantastical horror film steeped in Islamic cosmology including but not limited
to djinns, dervishes and Iblis (or Satan) himself.
Written and directed by Jamil Dehlavi and
produced by then-budding British film company Film Four, the film stars Peter
Firth and Suzan Crowley in a film that evokes a plethora of increasingly macabre
and rocky imagery, music and successfully perches itself atop an empire of
films that gleefully defy straightforward categorization.
The two main performers Peter Firth and Suzan
Crowley are generally good if not a little thankless, but Oh-Tee as the dreaded
Master Musician and disabled Jordanian actor Nabil Shaban as the mute but loyal
dervish all but completely grab the film out from under Firth and Crowley.
Though largely wordless, Oh-Tee and Shaban give astonishing
physical and emotional performances with some wild visual effects shooting fire
out of Oh-Tee’s eyes and an extraordinary sequence of Shaban crying out to the
heavens before engaging in a spiritual rite intended to repel the Master Musician. While Shaban doesn’t utter one line of
dialogue in Born of Fire, his screen presence and emotions portrayed
onscreen aren’t easily forgotten and strike a universally appealing chord with
the viewer. If there’s one character we
the audience are inclined to rally behind, it is unquestionably Shaban’s.
You may ask why see a film you know full well
you’re not going to understand due to vast cultural differences? Well, in this particular case it represents a
truly wild and untamed cinematic beast whose misunderstood and still largely
uncharted powers have the ability to transport you to places you’ve never
been. Dehlavi’s distinctly Middle
Eastern horror vision isn’t going to click with most people but you’d be hard
pressed to say you’ve ever seen anything remotely like this before.
--Andrew Kotwicki