2nd Best Lesbian Film – "Fire"

Posted by Censor Librorum on Dec 27, 2006 | Categories: Lesbian in a Catholic Sort of Way

“Fire” is a story told on several levels. It is not simply a lesbian movie, but a movie about women who buck tradition in order to live a happy life and feel alive. The fire between the women starts to build when Sita gives Radha a ring.

Fire is a story of two sister-in-laws–Sita and Radha–who are trapped in loveless marriages. Together, they find the warmth, companionship, caring and sex they don’t have with their husbands. By the end of the film they tell their husbands they are leaving the marriages to start a new life with each another.

An interesting subplot I probably didn’t fully appreciate was the story of Sita and the Fire. “When Rama finds Sita he is suddenly unable to trust her. He believes that she has betrayed him with Ravana. Sita is outraged and protests her innocence. She tells Lakshman to build a fire, the fire will burn her if she has done anything wrong. Rama forces his brother to build the fire. Sita steps into the flames. The flames crackle and burn but refuse to burn her. Sita walks through the flames, unharmed. As she walks the flames turn to flowers.”

There is a house fire at the end of the movie, but Radha, the older of the two and the last to leave the house, escapes essentially unharmed. The movie ends with a flashback of her in a field of flowers as a little girl, telling her parents that someday she wants to go to the sea. The parents laugh indulgently, but the little girl persists in her wanting to to see it, to reach it–the metaphor for a life with Sita?

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