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 #232 | 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

Probably the best drama of the last few years!

I decided to watch this movie because I have read many excellent critics and because this book is used in Quebec's "cegeps", some kind of a post-high-school, and my girlfriend talked about it with me. Indeed, I am very happy to have seen this intense movie. It is really a great and close to perfection. Even though I have even seen one or two better films this year, this movie is at least the best drama I have seen in the last five years.

This movie is absolutely convincing. It has very intense images and words and has a very slow paced and sad atmosphere. The movie begins very calm but the tension raises very fast and you really feel more and more with the tragic characters. This movie makes you cry, it makes you angry, it shocks you. Once again, it is a Quebecker movie that is cut into pieces and may mix you up a little bit in the beginning. You see scenes from the present where Jeanne and Simon are first parallely looking for the truth and trying to fulfil her last will, you see scenes from the dramatic past of her mother at different stages of her life and you also see scenes from the past of her family. The movie shows not only a couple of interesting and diversified characters (played by mostly unknown and indeed extremely talented actors), but also magnificent and intense landscapes, shocking crime and war scenes and insights of a foreign culture and the clash of the generations and ideologies in the past and the present. The movie is much diversified and very intellectual.

Many people were surprised by several twists and a very intense and dramatic ending. It is true that the development the movie takes is really shocking but I have seen a few things coming and wasn't that surprised in the end, but that almost does no harm to the atmosphere and tension of the movie. The movie tells in a very philosophical way about the irony of fate, peace and war, love and hate, vengeance and forgiveness, saints and sinners. It is uneasy to watch the movie and you still think about what you have heard and seen for quite a while after the movie.

Almost everything is perfect in this movie. There are two minor reasons why I don't give the best note. First of all, I was somehow able to predict some of the punches at a certain point in the movie and I have already seen more intense and shocking dramas that very even more uneasy and heavier to watch than this one, for example "The pianist". Second, some scenes in the beginning of the movie are not done very well by the camera man. In the scene where Jeanne is in her mathematic class and when she looks for some accessories in her room, the camera is disturbingly shaking and moving all the time but not to create an effect of uneasiness, because there are no similar scenes later in the movie during way heavier scenes. Those two scenes (that would not have been complicated to produce or film again) are just not well done and the director should have seen and corrected that before sending the final product to the festivals and cinemas. In a perfect and intense masterpiece, this little detail is really something that could harm the reputation and professionalism of the whole brilliant work. The next time, they should be more concentrated on the movie's perfection and keep their eyes open or invest the money in a good camera director instead of some war scenes.

But all in all, I think that we can really talk about an extremely good movie here! It is surely worth watching it and I agree with those ones who would like to see this movie represent Canada at the Oscars.