Nice film about Zarathustra, who is portrayed here more as a philosopher than as a prophet. It is only fitting that "A Quest for Zarathustra", the original title of "On Wings of Fire", starts with Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra", which became widely known to the general public through Stanley Kubrick's film "2001, A Space Odyssey". I find it somewhat strange that Zoroastrianism, which dates back at least 3,000 years and has had such a great influence on the world's religions, is today only a small faith community. The Parsis, as they are called, originally lived in Persia. Today they live mainly in India, but many have spread all over the world.
As a Star Trek fan I know at least three Parsi actors who have played in Star Trek: Persis Khambatta (Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Nazneen Contractor (Rima Harewood in Star Trek Into Darkness) and Erick Avari (B'iJik in Star Trek TNG en Vedek Yarka in Star Trek DS9). Too bad none of them played in this movie, although Persis Khambatta was apparently considered, see trivia page for more information. Other famous Parsi were Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group. The Tata group was also one of the film's financial backers.
As a Star Trek fan I know at least three Parsi actors who have played in Star Trek: Persis Khambatta (Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Nazneen Contractor (Rima Harewood in Star Trek Into Darkness) and Erick Avari (B'iJik in Star Trek TNG en Vedek Yarka in Star Trek DS9). Too bad none of them played in this movie, although Persis Khambatta was apparently considered, see trivia page for more information. Other famous Parsi were Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group. The Tata group was also one of the film's financial backers.
