Incendies (2010)

  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Incendies (2010) – D. Villeneuve

I received this blu-ray as a gift (thanks Jen & Pete!) close to the release date back then and hadn’t watched it since – so I completely forgot the twists in the plot. I’m not quite sure whether I would have chosen this last night if I had remembered but there’s no doubt about its impact.  Director Denis Villeneuve handles the unfolding plot, which sees Canadian twins travelling back to an unnamed Middle Eastern country to find their unknown father and never-before-mentioned brother after being instructed to do so in their mother’s will, with aplomb. Although the terrain is dusty, Villeneuve dots the screen with teal blue, whether it be a bus travelling through the dangerous South in the flashbacks of the mother (Lubna Azabal) and her life during an early 1970s civil war, or the garments worn by those visited by Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) or Simon (Maxim Gaudette) in the modern scenes. Based on a play by Wadji Mouawad, the film is structured like a detective story, with the twins uncovering clues about their mother and her relationships on the way to a final revelation that plays like Greek tragedy borne out of the horrors of war.  I guess Mouawad didn’t name the war-torn country so that the themes could generalize to all war-torn areas in the world, which unfortunately seem to have increased since the film was made.  As usual, it is the poor and powerless who suffer the most. Worth a rewatch (if you are ready for serious fare).