WERNER HERZOG The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

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The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft followed by a live virtual Q&A with director Werner Herzog.

The screening will be presented by Bexhill-raised filmmaker Peter Lown, who developed and co-produced the film and will moderate the Q&A with Werner Herzog.

Originally commissioned for television, this unique offering is a 'preview special', ahead of a limited theatrical run due to audience demand.

On 3 June 1991, a deadly cloud of hot gas and rock spewed out of Japan's Mount Unzen. Among the 43 people consumed by it were scientist-filmmakers Maurice and Katia Krafft. They left behind over 200 hours of footage from their decades of work, which Herzog draws on for this stunning eulogy.

From 1977's La Soufrière through to 2016's Into the Inferno, Herzog has long been fascinated by these violent natural events and his deeply personal voiceover is a fitting memorial to two people who gave their lives in the pursuit of both science and the pure cinematic image.

Peter Lown is a Producer/Director and Filmmaker who specialises in documentaries that question our relationship with nature. The Fire Within: A Requiem for Maurice and Katia Krafft reflects a decade-long journey of research, writing, pitching, dreaming and producing, that offers an entirely different view of the creative powers of our earth.

"The Kraffts story is almost fable-like: two people who fell in love through their shared passion for volcanoes until it became an all-consuming obsession that would eventually claim their lives. But through accepting their fate – their inevitable death – they discovered a hidden realm that exists right here on earth, they witnessed the powers of creation and destruction, and they filmed it all. Ever since I discovered their story over a decade ago, I dreamt what may be hidden in their archive. The connection with Werner Herzog brought a whole new dimension to the project, stripping the idea back to its core and shaping it through the prism of a 'requiem'. It's visual, visceral and mesmeric – there is nothing else like it in cinema history". Peter Lown

Image: Kraffla Islande Septembre 1984 00565┬® MAURICE & KATIA KRAFFT DUMONT