Incendies

Title: Incendies
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: Denis Villeneuve, Wajdi Mouawad (play)
Cast: Lubna Azabal (Nawal Marwan), Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin (Jeanne Marwan), Maxim Gaudette (Simon Marwan)
Genre: Drama
Special Notes: Cinematographic poetry

The fulfillment of a deceased mother’s last wish requires a truthful catharsis from twins Jeanne and Simons. The poetic scent of Middle East is the perfect catalyst for this drama about candidness, frivolity and family.
The movie starts with Nawal Marwan’s will with which she forces her two children, Jeanne and Simons, to find their unknown before brother. What seems to be an innocent request will change her children’s life forever. Death as a beginning is not uncommon in literature but it usually has other meanings. Here, death represents the sacrifice, the necessity to shed light on the truth and its meaning.
Jeanne is the first of the twins who puts aside everything and tries to fulfill her mother’s last wishes. Without the help of her brother, she follows her mother’s life backwards and, in the same time, Nawal’s story is uncovered by the director in its natural order of events. The difference between Middle East in Nawal’s youth and present seems to be irrelevant here because the viewer is tricked into believing that there is just one story. The director merges Nawal’s story and Jeanne’s story with the ingeniousness of a painter because he manages to destroy the only boundary remaining, the time.
The truth is uncovered second after second and we find Jeanne as a lost girl in an unknown place, seeking the answers without knowing the questions. The plot thickens minute by minute and the viewer gets caught in the same world as the characters, with the same atonal rhythm to play, seeking a catharsis.
Even if the movie’s action is slow going and it takes lots of patience to watch this, after finishing it you realize how condensed the movie was. The drama induces a thrill that continues to grow until the end of the movie sets it free. With the importance of one’s last wishes, limits are redefined, boundaries are shattered and persons come out different.
This movie is a modern day quest for truth, an unbiased and unparalleled story that could change the viewer’s world in the same way Nawal’s last wish changed her children’s world.

“ One plus one, does it make one? “

We were expecting you…