Incendies (2010)

English translation: Fires

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay: Denis Villeneuve, Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad)

Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette

Music: Grégoire Hetzel

Time: 130 minutes

Bottom-line: A powerful story, with plot twists right from frame one

Denis Villeneuve’s French film puts together many themes: religion, civil war, survival... all of which provide the base for the story of how two siblings fulfil their mother’s death wish. Starring Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette and Rémy Girard, this is a story loosely based on the Lebanese Civil War and the life of prisoner Souha Bechara. Incendies was nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film.

 

Azabal as Nawal

Jeanne (Poulin) and Simon (Gaudette) are twins living in Canada, where their mother, Nawal Marwan (Azabal), a Canadian immigrant, has just passed away. Her friend and a notary, Jean (Girard), reads out her will, where she asks Jeanne to deliver a letter to her father – who the twins presumed to be long dead – and Simon to deliver another letter to their brother – whose existence they were never aware of. On doing so, they would be given another letter, and only then would they be instructed to bury her. Following few leads, Jeanne goes to an unnamed Middle-Eastern country, where, through flashbacks, Jeanne (and the viewer) learns Nawal’s heinous past – with tales of murder, rape, torture and religious conflicts. Who was Nawal? And who is the mysterious brother and who is the “dead” father?

 

Poulin as Jeanne and Gaudette as Simon

Lubna Azabal, the Belgian actress who played Nawal, is at her very best. From the person who is almost murdered for eloping with a refugee, to the victim of the Civil War, to the assassin, to being the rape victim in prison, she plays each role with such commitment… that is a major driving factor for the success of the film. I like the usage of the camera here: the long shots are designed to focus on the faces of the characters, for just enough time to capture the change in emotion. In particular, look out for the scene where the twins meet the nurse – watch how the happiness slowly turns to shock – and the scene where Nawal is in the swimming pool (towards the end). I remember the same technique being employed in the film 45 Years.

The story gets crooked at times. This film gives a good example of a MacGuffin, which is a device that triggers a story but doesn’t appear in the movie except once or twice (other examples could be the gold watch in Pulp Fiction or the “Heart of the Ocean” necklace in Titanic). The two letters given to the twins do precisely that; you can come up with a dozen “what ifs” with the plot, apart from “Why even give the letters?” but that’s how the story goes. The plot twist at the end is not entirely satisfying; as a notable critic said, “You might end up doing math in your head rather than being shocked at the twist,” and that’s what I ended up doing (I wouldn’t be surprised if you cringe, too)! The other twists are effective though. I liked the narrative structure as well: every time we see the flashback of Nawal, the story of Jeanne picks up from the same location, but from the current timeline, to sort of give an illusion of how Jeanne’s search has progressed.

There is a lot of violence and drama in Incendies. The theme of religion is emphasised a lot. There is one scene where Christians attack a bus full of Muslims – undoubtedly the most gruelling scene of Incendies – which shows the height of violence because of religious conflict. While the ending may not live up to my expectations, the acting and the visuals deserve a lot of praise. It is not a great story, but surely is a powerful one.

My Rating: 3/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%