Incendies: Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Incendies, which was nominated for last year's foreign-film Oscar and won numerous Genies (the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars), is a disturbing layover at the crossroads of forgiveness and revenge. It's a challenging film on several levels. Not only is there a hearty helping of violence to be digested over the film's 130 minutes, but audiences must also wrestle with a complex narrative structure—complete with intercuts and flashbacks and even a few chapter headings.
The story begins in a notary's office in Canada, where two fraternal twins, Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette), are hearing the last will and testament of their mother, Nawal (Lubna Azabal). We soon learn that Nawal was a hard-working but enigmatic woman. Each of the twins receives a sealed envelope to be delivered to a brother and a father they never knew.
Simon dismisses this task as a cruel party trick from the grave—more evidence of his late mother's instability—and refuses to participate. But Jeanne, the more thoughtful of the two, seeks to honor her mother's request as best she can. This leads her on a spiritual journey to the Middle East, where secrets that have been buried for decades are waiting to be unearthed.
