Incendies (2010)

Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother's last wishes.

Director:

Denis Villeneuve

Writers:

Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (script consultant), Wajdi Mouawad (play),

Stars:

Mustafa Kamel, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette

Top 250 #231 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 36 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mustafa Kamel	...	Barbier de la Milice / Officer Milice Chrétienne
Hussein Sami	...	Nihad (5ans)
Rémy Girard	...	Notaire Jean Lebel
Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin	...	Jeanne Marwan
Maxim Gaudette	...	Simon Marwan
Dominique Briand	...	Prodessor Niv Cohen
Lubna Azabal	...	Nawal Marwan
Frédéric Paquet	...	Médecin a l'urgence
Hamed Najem	...	Wahab
Ahmad Massad	...	Bassem Marwan
Bader Alami	...	Nicolas Marwan
Majida Hussein	...	Grand-mére de Nawal
Asriah Nijres	...	Sage-Femme
John Dunn-Hill	...	Professeur Saïd Haidar
Nadia Essadiqi	...	Secrétaire Université

Storyline

A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.

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Plot Keywords:

middle east | twin | notary | past life | mathematician | 

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Taglines:

The search began at the opening of their mother's will.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook [gb] Official Facebook [us]

Country:

Canada France

Language:

French Arabic English

Release Date:

12 January 2011 (France)

Also Known As:

Die Frau die singt - Incendies

Filming Locations:

175 Boulevard Deguire, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$50,679 (USA) (22 April 2011)

Gross:

$6,857,096 (USA) (23 September 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

micro_scope, TS Productions, Phi Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film won the Best Feature Film awarded by the jury at the 2011 Adelaide Film Festival. Director Denis Villeneuve responded by saying that "As a poetic sign of gratitude to [the] Adelaide Film Festival, I'll give the name of 'Adelaide' to one of my main characters in my next film. So thank you one thousand times to [the] Adelaide Film Festival!"

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Quotes

[subtitled version]
Notary Jean Lebel: [after making a promise] To a notary, Mr. Marwan, a promise is a sacred thing.

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Crazy Credits

'Mr. Leonard Cohen I need your help, please call me." - Denis Villeneuve

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Connections

Featured in The 83rd Annual Academy Awards (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Like Spinning Plates"
Performed by Radiohead

User Reviews

A Nutshell Review: Incendies

The film begins in sweeping slow motion, centered around a harsh cemented premises with a bunch of boys undergoing the shaving of their hair ala military fashion, with the camera centered on one boy possessing this crazed looking eyes, before cutting to Canada where twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette respectively) arrive at a notary's office to accept the will of their recently deceased mother Nawal (Lubna Azabal), where they are left with letters to deliver to a father and brother that they do not know. In the meantime, they are to bury their mother in a certain strange way until their quest has been completed, with the notary Jean Lebel (Remy Girard), Nawal's boss the last few years, ensuring that her last will and testament is completed the way it was intended.

Incendies, based upon the play Scorched written by Wajdi Mouawad and adapted for the screen by director Denis Villeneuve, was this year's Best Foreign Language Film nominee from Canada, and there's every reason why it was a nomination well deserved. Set against a mystery to be unraveled so slowly, bringing together seemingly disparate events together in shocking fashion by the time we're through, the narrative is split into two different timelines, with the current one being the twins' journey to an unnamed Middle Eastern country in search for clues to their unknown father and brother, while with each milestone achieved of sorts, we get to see a flashback to the time of their mother, brought up in a harsh environment involving the staining of family honour, as well as religious zealots and militants who set her off in a tale of an avenging angel, and sacrifice.

And the story sprawls in many directions, though with Villeneuve always having an assured hand in not having this fall into melodramatic terms nor have any wasted scenes, highlighting issues that still exist to this very day involving hatred, revenge and forgiveness, but not before laying down a number of surprises that will shake you to the core especially when the mysterious equation finally gets solved – you may get a hint of what's to come, but this got handled so expertly without being verbatim, that it accentuates and compounds the myriad of complex emotions felt by all the characters involved.

With sweeping cinematography that's achingly beautiful to gaze at, one of the best scenes involve the brutal, cold blooded mass murder where militants spray countless of rounds into a packed bus, culminating in that shot of a burning bus shrouded in thick black smoke against an endless sandy environment, with Nawal finally snapping into making a decision to take matters into her own hands from then on. Between the two stories, perhaps it is Nawal's painful journey that makes this compelling viewing, from having her lover forcefully and terminally separated from her by family during her teens, then her volunteering and sacrifice leading to imprisonment and ill treatment within as punishment. What she did as part of reconciliation is in part a masterstroke in inflicting inexplicable pain in return to her perpetrator, is what made this film a winner, although it will stun you into silence well after the end credits roll from the devastation the narrative left in its wake.

The other half of the narrative deals with Jeanne and Simon's journey to dig through unwritten laws, and reluctance of tightly knit communities that prefer to keep the status quo and not dwell and reopen wounds inflicted from their collective shameful past, some in denial, while others happy to have seen a more favourable outcome from Nawal's hardships. It is this piecing together of the mystery like an investigative drama that makes Incendies unique, and what more, Radiohead also features in the soundtrack – strange but true, and very powerful if you ask me.

Comparing the ratings between this film at M18 and Womb at R21 reveals what the censors allow and not allow when dealing with more mature themes, likely centered around the intention of its more controversial scenes. It's anyone's guess why was was given the highest rating possible, and the other one rung lower, given that both actually didn't have anything explicit, except perhaps one was used as an unintentional weapon of torture and destruction in the psychological sense, while the other was a love story gotten out of control! Still, for its strong story and excellent production values, Incendies becomes that must watch film in 2011, especially during this season of noisy summer action blockbusters that absolutely don't resonate as much as this film. Highly recommended!