FIRE-EATER Official Competition

Twin girls, abandoned by their mother, are raised by their
grandmother who calls them Vladimir and llyich after her hero
Lenin. Their life under the protection of their grandmother and
her Communist teaching ends with her sudden death, and at the
age of eight the girls find themselves in an orphanage. There
they create a world of their own, excluding all others, forming a
symbiotic love that will follow them throughout their lives.
When their mother suddenly re-appears to take them with her
into a life in the circus, this relationship becomes threatened as
she bestows adoration on the more talented one, training her to
be a trapeze artist. while turning the other into her sister’s
servant. But when she reveals that she has learned the art of
fire-eating, the neglected sister finally wins the affection of her
venomous mother.
“FIRE-EATER deals with the theme of the passing on of evil, with
how the burden flows from one generation to the next until
someone halts it.”-Pirjo Honkasalo
Filmography:
Flametop [1980); 250 Grams [1983); Da Capo (1985); Mysterion (1991); Tanjuska
and the 7 Devils (1993); Atman (1996); Fire-Eater (1998)
Print Source:
Finnish Film Foundation