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 #230 | 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 Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.14 (2011)
clips are shown as Christy and Ignatiy review the film

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Soundtracks

"Like Spinning Plates"
Performed by Radiohead

User Reviews

Exquisite

Denis Villeneuve has created nothing less than a masterpiece. This film is revealing a great Director, especially when given an original story with such powerful dimensions.

Despite being skeptical as first of the film being shot in Jordan, when dealing with the very specific, multidimensional Lebanese drama, the geographic distance with the land of Lebanon is detaching the film from the strict reality of the place and taking it to whole other level of significance. Jordan's landscape especially with the film's photography, are somewhat surrealistic, as if the story was taking place in a deep level of the region's sub-conscious.

Villeneuve has managed to delicately craft a story with dimensions that a human mind in its normal condition is not prepared to understand and confront. And yet these things did happen, many times during the war and retelling them is a very not an easy task. Actually a quasi impossible one and yet Villeneuve did it.

This has to be the film representing Canada at the Oscars. And it will win.