One plus One is Equal to One

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2012)

In Canada, the sixty year-old immigrant secretary Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) passes away and the notary Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard), who had been her employer and friend for seventeen years, reads her will to her twin son and daughter Simon (Maxim Gaudette) and Jeanne Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin), who is a mathematician.
Nawal requests to be buried naked with her face down and her tomb without a gravestone; further, she leaves three sealed envelopes addressed to the twins' father that they believed had deceased in the Middle East; to their unknown brother; and the last one to themselves to be opened only after the delivery of the other two. Then, they may put a gravestone on her tomb. Simon is reluctant to respect his mother last wishes, but Jeanne decides to find her biological father and brother.
She travels to the Middle East to track down the past life of her mother and she discovers who she was before moving to Canada. She feels disturbed with the revelations and asks Simon to come to the Middle East to assist her in her journey. Simon discovers who his father and his brother are and concludes that one plus one may be equal to one.
"Incendies" is an intriguing film about the journey of two twin siblings that travel to the Middle East to fulfill the last wish of their mother and end discovering the disturbing history of their family.
The screenplay is very well written and discloses in parallel to the journey of Jeanne first and Simon later, the brave history of their mother in an unnamed country in the Middle East. The plot point in the conclusion is totally unexpected and heartbreaking. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Incêndios" ("Fires")