Quest for Fire
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Quest for Fire (French La Guerre du feu after an eponymous novel) is a 1981 fantasy film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud.
The film tells the story of a group of paleolithic humans who travel their dangerous world in search of a flame to rekindle their lost fire. It stars Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nameer El-Kadi and Rae Dawn Chong; other actors include The Great Antonio.
The anthropology in this film is muddled — three separate human species, only one of which seems to be sapiens, plus one apelike group — but it nevertheless has some great moments and more humour than one would expect.
The movie was adapted by Gérard Brach from the novel by J.-H. Rosny. The invented language spoken by the prehistoric humans was invented by Anthony Burgess. The gestural and body language was overseen by Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape.
It won the Academy Award for Makeup.
Trivia
The heavy metal band Iron Maiden's album Piece of Mind contains the track Quest for Fire based on this film.