French-Canadian drama, adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play and nominated for Best Foreign Langauge Film at the 2011 Academy Awards.
After the death of their mother (Lubna Azabal), Jeanne and Simon (Mélissa Désormeaux Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) receive a pair of envelopes in the will – one for the father they thought was dead and another for a brother they didn’t know existed.
Jeanne decides to go to the Middle East to dig into her mysterious family history. Simon is unmoved by their mother’s posthumous mind games but joins his sister in combing their ancestral homeland. The twins discover a tragic fate and a very different person from the mother they knew.
A worthy Academy Award nominee, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s stage play is as difficult to follow as the conflict that forms its backdrop. Instructed to find their unknown (and possibly non-existent) father and brother in mother Lubna Azabal’s will, French-Canadian twins Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette head to Lebanon, where Azabal was a political prisoner during the Civil War. The film then intercuts Azabal’s torture with her children’s attempts to retrace their family tree, in the process uncovering her – and her homeland’s – secrets.
Because of the dual narrative, the characters in the present are often little more than intermediaries between us and Azabal’s story, passing on the past in fractured monologues and mistranslations. But every time the film begins to feel more like a history lesson than a drama, it explodes into action. Witness the devastating desert ambush, or Désormeaux-Poulin’s symbolic splash across a snow-white swimming pool.
As well as moving performances, the film benefits from André Turpin’s agile cinematography, which follows the characters at shoulder height so we feel like we’re walking in their shoes. It’s only appropriate – they’re following in their mother’s footsteps – besides, this is a film about compassion and understanding, albeit an extremely challenging one.
In such a dense, desolate atmosphere, even the accompanying Radiohead songs make sudden, shimmering sense – despite the fact that one is sung backwards. “You and whose army?” threatens singer Thom Yorke, as soldiers shave the heads of sad-eyed children. “You and your cronies. You forget so easily.” If only everybody could.
By Matt Glasby, Flicks.co.nz
This is one of those films that you will not forget. An inspirational story of love, hope, struggle, dignity, persistence, triumph and forgiveness. We could all learn something from this film.
I loved this movie, even with its heart-wrenching twists, and kick in the guts outcome. Hard to believe anyone was acting, it was so realistic. And such an emotionally raw journey, a web of intrigue and secrecy finally untangled, in a powerful and engrossing way, dealing exceptionally well with the human drive to survive, against the most devastating circumstances a woman could ever face. Not to be missed.
Breathtaking. A masterfully told tragedy, thrilling, heartbreaking, terrifying. An engrossing movie that unfolds with a fierce intensity, but is so delicately acted that you are left shattered. Essential viewing
Beautiful and powerful movie highly recommended
One of the most remarkable movies I've ever seen, left the cinema stunned it's very powerful.
While the film will likely stick with viewers, it's ultimately a tossup what they'll remember most: the stunning buildup, or the massive letdown.
Most people do not choose their religions but have them forced upon themselves by birth, and the lesson of Incendies is that an accident of birth is not a reason for hatred.
A thriller that twists and turns with an understated power that will have you gripping the arm of your seat. Terrific stuff.
Although the film runs more than two hours, the story is so compelling and the production so beautifully controlled that we are gripped by the characters' quest right up to the shocking end of the story.
The past is where all the intrigue of the movie lies, and that is where the film is at its most compelling, with the present sometimes wilting in the desert heat.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 11th Aug 2011.
Release date: August 11th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
