Fire

Presented as part of Birds Eye View’s QUEERIOUS programme.

Sita and Radha are two young women abandoned by their husbands, who find intimacy and passion in each other in this erotic romantic drama. The first of Deepa Mehta’s celebrated ‘Elements’ trilogy, Fire was one of the first mainstream Bollywood film to explicitly depict homosexual relations in a culture adamantly denying such a love could ever exist and was banned in India as a result. Fire is loosely based on "Lihaaf" ("The Quilt") written by Ismat Chughta who famously refused to apologise when her short story found itself the subject of an obscenity trial in India following its publication in 1942.

Birds Eye View’s QUEERIOUS programme will explore a multitude of desires on screen in ways we all too rarely see in cinema. Through stories of sexual (re)awakenings and queer love through a feminist lens, the season aims to help us to question, learn and enjoy our sexual selves. Queerious will tour across the UK.