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      Heart of Fire

      2008 1 hr. 32 min. Drama War Biography List
      86% 7 Reviews Tomatometer 35% 100+ Ratings Audience Score Based on the true story of a young Eritrean girl abandoned by her mother and trained to fight in one of Eritrea's liberation armies. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (9) audience reviews
      Audience Member Really liked it - fictional account of a young girl caught up in war and her fight for survival. Sad, but inspiring. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Worthy but unconvincing movie about child soldiers in one of the rival factions (the losing one) in the complexity of the Eritrean war of independence against Ethiopia. The heroine, a little girl in a red dress, Awet (Letekidan Micael) fails to become radicalised by her comrades and holds on to the humanitarian values taught her by the nuns in her orphanage in Asmara. Perhaps Eritrea was different from sub-Saharan Africa, but Awet's experiences with a relatively benign bunch of socialist soldiers certainly have none of the horror which I associate with the experience of African child soldiers. It might have been near-unwatchable if it had. Perhaps what is conveyed is how easily people can slide into conflict when they are basically on the same side (the Irish Civil War of 1922-23 which killed more people than their War of Independence perhaps illustrates this). The ease with which Awet and her sister join up may well be telling too - their father hands them over to the local commander "I am too old to fight but these are now Daughters of Eritrea". Watch it though for little Letekidan Micael's fine performance as a child wise beyond her years. The trouble is that real child soldiers (like real grown-up soldiers) aren't. They merely have seen, and perhaps done, too much. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member The lead role is so young and yet plays so well just shows you how the early stages in life are important highlight this war as well Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member This is no fairy tale. Children's lives are sacre in the western world; whereas they are the provider of manpower here... It is a story that is still very much a norm in part of africa. A simple portrait of the world... violent and innocent alike. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Mike M Exists in the sentimental mode of certain European productions of the 1990s ("Kolya", "The Thief") which sought to simplify seismic political shifts for wide audiences by observing them through the eyes of an adorable child. There's no denying Micael is adorable, with her modest, slowburn smiles and inability to pronounce "socialism", let alone grasp what it means.... The problem with this perspective is that it's limiting, and overly reliant on writing and imagery a child herself might understand: Awet observing the symbolic storm clouds gathering over the desert, for one, or being taught by the nuns to turn the other cheek, a lesson that inevitably comes on handy later on; were it not drawn from a true story, the ending might seem right out of a picture book. The forthcoming "Johnny Mad Dog" - about child soldiers in Liberia - reportedly tackles this murderous form of child labour with far less restraint (not least by focusing on infants who, unlike Amet, rather take to their weaponry), and is all the more troubling and effective for it. You can't help but think Falorni's film is rather too watchable for the horrors it purports to represent, but if it gets the tribal names Jebha and Shabia into wider conversation, as "Hotel Rwanda" did with the Tutsi and Hutu, then all its simplifications and manipulations won't have been in vain. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/20/09 Full Review Audience Member Extraordinary film about a young girl's transformation into a radical freedom fighter in Eritrea. The lead girl is fantastic, and the film, which takes a close look at the Eritrean struggle for independence and its use of children in its rebel groups, is both disturbing and powerful. This is forceful, by the throat filmmaking. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Heart of Fire

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (7) Critics Reviews
      Trevor Johnston Time Out The pint-sized heroine's defiant adherence to humanitarian values renders her more a stand-in for arthouse viewers' right-on worldview than a real child in a specific dramatic situation. Rated: 2/5 Sep 25, 2009 Full Review Andrew Pulver Guardian The story, taken from a memoir by Senait Mehari, has come in for considerable criticism as to accuracy... but Falorni's film certainly feels utterly plausibile. Rated: 3/5 Sep 25, 2009 Full Review Walter V. Addiego San Francisco Chronicle While unsubtle, this German-Austrian drama about the use of child soldiers is worth seeing for a remarkable performance by its 10-year-old lead actress. Rated: 3/4 Feb 6, 2009 Full Review Sarah Manvel Critic's Notebook The film does an age-appropriate job of demonstrating how people always have choices, even in situations where they have no choice. Aug 9, 2018 Full Review Stella Papamichael Film4 Letekidan Micael sets the screen alight in this alarming and memorable story of a child soldier. Rated: 4/5 Sep 25, 2009 Full Review Matt Glasby Total Film Offering nothing more probing than a child's eye view of this "fanatical, fratricidal war", it depresses where it should devastate; an honorable effort that ultimately fails to ignite. Rated: 3/5 Sep 25, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Based on the true story of a young Eritrean girl abandoned by her mother and trained to fight in one of Eritrea's liberation armies.
      Director
      Luigi Falorni
      Screenwriter
      Luigi Falorni, Gabriele Kister, Senait Mehari
      Genre
      Drama, War, Biography
      Original Language
      Italian