Fire (1996)

Deepa Mehta | Canada | 1996 | 107 min | R21 (Homosexual Content) Two sisters-in-law in unhappy marriages form a romantic relationship in this powerful examination of female desire and agency. Newlywed Sita’s husband Jatin openly continues his affair with another woman, while her sister-in-law Radha suffers in her marriage with Jatin’s brother Ashok due to the vow of celibacy his guru advised him to take. The women navigate their roles as dutiful wives in their middle-class multigenerational household in 1990s New Delhi, caring for their bedridden mother-in-law and working in the family’s food stall. As Sita vocally chafes at sexist customs, Radha also increasingly asserts herself, and their relationship shifts from intimate friendship to romance. When their sexual relationship is exposed, they must escape the domestic space that can no longer safely house them, held instead by their love for each other.