Fire in the Mountains                     4 suns

Although I didn’t fully understand it Fire in the Mountains was one of my favorites of the international films. Set in the Himalayan mountains of India, we follow a couple trying to eek out a living in a poor village. They have a young son who cannot walk and there is no road to their part of the village, so the boy must be carried down a trail for trips to the doctor. The mother pleads with officials to get a road built and listens and trusts in the doctors who use Western medicine. The father however, wants to believe in the local religion as preached by the shaman with its folk remedies involving animal sacrifices and elaborate rituals. Funding both views puts enormous stress on the finances of the family leading to conflict. (There is also the threat of being attacked by a leopard in the woods!) The performances were completely convincing and the expansive mountain views were great to look at. Since this movie deals with a culture I know little about there are aspects about it that made little sense to me, but I still found it to be a fascinating story.