Quest for Fire (film)

Quest for Fire French La Guerre du feu is a 1981 film adaptation of the 1911 Belgian novel by J.H. Rosny. Directed by JeanJacques Annaud and adapted by Grard Brach, the film stars Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nameer ElKadi, and Rae Dawn Chong. It won the Academy Award for Makeup. Michael D. Moore was the associate producer in charge of action and animal scenes.

The film begins with a raid by the apelike Wagabu tribe on the early Homo sapiens Ulam tribe, who possess fire in the form of a carefully guarded small flame which they use to start larger bonfires. Obtained from a natural source, the flame is kept in a fabricated bone satchel and must be fed constantly to keep it alive, because the Ulam dont know how to start a fire. Driven out of their home after a bloody battle with the Wagabu, the surviving Ulam escape but are chased into a marsh by a pack of wolves. The Ulams baldheaded fire tender escapes with the tribes remaining fire however, while crossing a marsh, he all but douses the embers, leaving the tribe doomed to die from exposure and starvation. The Ulam elder decides to send three men, Naoh Everett McGill, Amoukar Ron Perlman and Gaw Nameer ElKadi, on a quest to find fire.After a frightening encounter with a pair of sabertoothed cats which leave the three of them perched in a small tree all night the trio desperately seek food and soon enter the territory of the Kzamm, a Neanderthal tribe who practice cannibalism by capturing and eating members of the CroMagnon early modern humans Ivaka tribe. Gaw and Amoukar pretend to be crazy madmen to create a ruse and cause the Kzamm tribe to scatter, and Naoh manages to steal some fire, but not without being injured in a fight with two of them. One of his injuries is a bite to the genitals, causing him extraordinary agony. After killing his opponents smashing a rock over the head of the Kzamm tribesman who bit his genitals and disposing of the Kzamms remaining fire in contempt, Naoh rejoins Gaw and Amoukar, still limping in agony. ........

Source: Wikipedia