Review: ‘Those Who Feel the Fire Burning’ is a powerful look at the refugee journey
The refugee experience has been documented in many a nonfiction film, but seldom as unconventionally as in Morgan Knibbe’s affectingly poetic first feature, “Those Who Feel the Fire Burning.”
In the harrowing opening sequence, a boatload of migrants headed for Europe encounters a devastating storm amid rapid bursts of light and a confusion of muffled voices in the darkness; it’s soon clear that Dutch filmmaker Knibbe had something more experimental in mind than the traditional photojournalistic, point-and-shoot route.
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A series of alternating snapshots depict the hardscrabble lives of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa who have fled political and economic hardship only to find themselves crossing an increasingly rigid border into seemingly greater uncertainty.
Knibbe’s heavily stylized approach proves as potent as it is timely. Employing a restless, constantly moving camera and deliberately isolating soundscapes, the meditative and often mesmerizing film confronts the global issue of swelling immigration in the face of steely bureaucratic indifference with a disarming grace and palpable humanity.
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“Those Who Feel the Fire Burning”
MPAA rating: None.
Running time: 1 hour, 14 minutes.
Playing: Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood.
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