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MovieMail's Review
Spanning Canada and the Middle East, this Oscar-nominated film is brave, haunting and capable of handling a tough subject, says James Oliver.
After their immigrant mother Nawal (Azabel) dies, her twin children are baffled by the instructions she leaves in her will. Her lawyer informs them that they have both a brother and a father they never knew existed and that, moreover, they are to locate them. Her son Simon (Gaudette) protests but Jeanne (Désormeaux-Poulin), her daughter, begins the hunt.
Her investigations take her from Canada to her mother's war torn homeland in the Middle East. She soon discovers that her mother was far more than she ever suspected, both a participant in and victim of a brutal sectarian conflict. From beyond the grave, Nawal teaches her beloved offspring a lesson about reconciliation and forgiveness.
It's a brave film that tackles the subject of conflict in the Middle East; the causes are complex and arouse strong passions. Luckily writer-director Denis Villeneuve is up the job, discussing powerful issues without ever becoming partisan. The film largely takes place in an unnamed country – it might be Lebanon but that doesn't matter – and keeps the politics hazy. What's important is showing how the anger and hatred that festers in this unhappy land drive people to do monstrous things – and asking if it's possible to stop it.
It's a film, in part, about the cycle of violence that keeps the blood flowing and concludes with a powerful call for a better future. The climax is resolutely emotional rather than political, hinging on the sort of coincidence one might find in one of the more operatic Victorian novels; some will find it melodramatic but it offers a symbolic resolution that manages to suggest a way forward.
Villeneuve adapted the film from a play by Wajdi Mouawad, transforming it into a thoroughly cinematic experience. It's filled with haunting moments that linger in the mind, like the hypnotic opening of children getting their heads shaved, and a devastating assault on a bus. No wonder he's been snapped up by Hollywood.
Nominated for this year's Foreign Language Oscar, Incendies for a film for anyone who has agonised over that benighted region; this film implores us not to abandon hope.
The Oscar-nominated drama Incendies sees twins Jeanne and Simon puzzled by the unusual requests made in their Lebanese-Canadian mother's will.
Among the papers she leaves behind are two sealed letters: one to be delivered to a brother the twins did not know they had, and the other to their father, whom they had presumed dead. To deliver the letters the twins travel to Lebanon, where the traumatic and tumultuous past experiences of their mother (Lubna Azabal) are gradually revealed.
