In prevailing times, when women around the world are asking for equal rights as men, French-Canadian production L’Atelier brings us Fireheart, a movie that just like its name — the fire in the heart.

It follows a 16-year-old girl, who wants to live her dream and become the world’s first-ever female firefighter. Georgia Nolan (voiced by Olivia Cooke) is the daughter of a retired firefighter Shawn Nolan, who abandoned his job to become a tailor, in order to protect his daughter.

The father is aware of his daughter’s dream, who is helping him out at home, but tells her what every father in his situation would have — ‘Girls cannot be firefighters.’

Set in New York in the 1920s, the film takes a turn when a mysterious fire begins targeting various Broadway theatres. New York Mayor Jimmy Murray asks Georgia’s father ‘Shawn’ to come out of retirement and investigate why all the ‘firefighters’ who attend the distress calls, never return. Georgia gets a chance to prove herself by joining the make-shift team of her father, as a ‘Joe’. She disguises herself as a boy to prove them wrong and succeed.

The way ‘Joe’ impresses her father and takes charge of the investigation, surely brings a tear to the eyes of all fathers who have daughters at home. The confused father, on one hand, is teaching ‘Joe’ the basics, but has kept the daughter, of the same age, away. The antagonist of the movie is also a ‘girl’ who is also fighting the war within. It’s a battle between good and evil, but on both sides, girls are the ones fighting.

The scenes comprising breath-taking action and the brushes with death are well-supported by the background score, and the pains Georgia encounters as Joe can be easily felt by any kid her age. The way scenes of a hundred years ago are depicted in the movie is the brainchild of the directors, who have been part of the production team of animated movies like Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Puss in Boots.

The movie will appeal to kids as well as adults. Parents would love to listen to the voices of Kenneth Branagh (Hercule Poirot) and William Shatner (Captain Kirk from the Star Trek Series of the ‘60s), while children would be bowled over by the animation.

The bond between Kenneth Branagh and Olivia Cooke’s characters reminds one of their own relations with their kids. The film has a distant connection with Disney’s Mulan (1998), where the ‘girl’ becomes a ‘boy’ to save her country. Fireheart may have the ’saving’ option open, but eventually, “It’s the fire in the heart that matters”.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 2nd, 2022