MIFF: Afire

In a holiday house on the Baltic Sea, two friends work on their respective creative projects before others join them and emotions begin to unravel.

It seems that no one holds more complicated feelings than a writer completing their second book. The relationships in "Afire" remind us of our fragility and complexity as a wildfire threatens the surroundings with finiteness. The writer/director seems most interested in our inherent humanness, which readily comes to the fore as the characters learn to regret any affinity for pettiness. A satisfyingly character-driven effort centred on the creative ego – though not all creative egos, mind you. Fire works.

MIFF 2023
102 mins