Alsatian researchers Maurice and Katia Krafft, who died in a fiery cloud in Japan in 1991, inspired director Sara Dosa for her documentary “Fire of Love”.
After being kept for nearly twenty years by an association in Nancy, spectacular images taken by an extraordinary couple of volcanologists have reappeared in a fascinating documentary. fire of love, by the American Sara Dosa, is in the running in the documentary category at the Baftas, the British film awards which will be awarded on February 19, and also at the Oscars (March 12). The film has already won several awards, including editing at the Sundance Film Festival.
It is devoted to the passion that Alsatian researchers Maurice and Katia Krafft had for each other and for volcanoes, a love triangle that ended tragically in 1991. Like around forty people, they had been victims of a fiery cloud (mixture of gas, ash and rocks) at Mount Unzen, Japan.
300,000 photos and 800 film reels
fire of love is essentially made up of images taken by the two scientists who have traveled the world for 25 years, documenting their expeditions to finance incessant journeys and feed their own documentaries, books and conferences. This “Krafft fund”, 300,000 photos in the form of slides taken by Katia and 800 reels of 16 mm film shot by Maurice, was entrusted in 2003 by Bertrand Krafft, brother of the volcanologist, to Image’Est, a conservation association film and audiovisual heritage located in Nancy.
Until a Canadian producer decides to exploit this treasure. “When Ina Fichman contacted me more than three years ago, her wish was that everything could be digitized, something that had never been done“, tells AFP Mathieu Rousseau, project manager at the heritage center of Image’Est. After a long digitization and restoration work, Image’Est was able to provide him with 150 hours of original rushes.
“A poetic, sensual relationship with volcanoes”
Shot of Katia in a fireproof suit in front of an erupting volcano or of Maurice paddling on an acid lake: these images, sometimes terrifying, give a glimpse of the life of a couple for whom scientific curiosity was stronger than fear. It also reveals “a poetic, sensual relationship with volcanoes, truly a loving gaze“, says Mathieu Rousseau.
This passion had struck Maurice at a very young age when his parents took him to see Stromboli, in Italy, explains to AFP his brother Bertrand, 82, in his house near Nancy. “There were four of us, we decided to go up at night, the ground was crunching under our feet with the cooling lava. From time to time it trembled… We stayed there, without saying a word, until the next day. We saw the sunrise on Stromboli, with these volcanic bombs… For Maurice it made tilt“, he says.
At the origin of the Vulcania park in Auvergne
Their parents, very traveling doctors, developed the scientific fiber of the two boys. “As kids, we played at making volcanoes in the garden. We made a pile of sand, we put a bengal fire“, recalls Bertrand Krafft. The eldest will devote himself to biology, his younger to volcanology. He will meet the soul mate on the benches of the University of Strasbourg. For Bertrand Krafft, “they were complementary. Maurice was a go-getter, a bulldozer. Katia was more reasonable“.
Eager to increase their knowledge, the two volcanologists were keen to popularize their knowledge and make the authorities aware of the risks, in order to set up prevention plans. They designed the Maison du volcan on Reunion Island and are behind the Vulcania park in Auvergne.
For Mathieu Rousseau, see fire of love been “extremely moving“, especially since the Krafft fund has now left Image’Est, after being bought by producer Julien Dumont (Titan films) who plans to create a museum of earth sciences in Lyon. Bertrand Krafft felt A “relief“, believing that it represents a necessary tribute to a couple who were “better known in the United States than in France“: “they finally got what they deserved“.