This hauntingly beautiful film from rising art film director Oliver Laxe is both simple and compellingly enigmatic. Amador (Arias) has just finished serving two years in prison for supposedly setting a fire that almost consumed his community. When he returns home to his mountainside village in north-west Spain, he resumes a serene, if mostly solitary, existence tending cabbages and injured cows with his aging mother, Benedicta (Sánchez). Life seemingly picks up where it left off for the two – following the rhythm of nature despite the suspicious glares of the unforgiving locals. Until, one night, it becomes clear that Amador might be done with fire, but fire is not done with him.

For his third feature, Laxe brings us to his ancestral home of Galicia. Here, in this remote Spanish region, where the grandeur of nature is both beautiful and terrifying, Laxe unfolds a story of the uncontrollable forces of nature on human lives. Stunningly captured on 16mm by cinematographer Mauro Herce, this quietly explosive drama was the winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

“‘Fire Will Come’ is a pithy and devastating masterstroke from an auteur astute in his calibration of subdued emotional impact. Its discourse on forgiveness simmers in one’s mind inextinguishably.” – Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times

“This beautifully composed offering from Spanish director Oliver Laxe is a compelling, enigmatic watch.” – Tom Meek, Cambridge Day