Not simply 'scorching' but 'blistering'

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2011)

INCENDIES began as a play of the same name by Wajdi Mouawad and was opened up as only cinema can do by the author with the assistance of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and consultant Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne. The result is a staggeringly powerful film whose story is so well revealed by a cast of sterling actors that telling too much of the plot would be a disservice to those who come to this experience for the first time. In this viewer's opinion it is simply one of the finest films of the decade and it bound to become a permanent part of the cinematic library.
The opening of the film reveals many clues as to the direction the story will take. In a stark room young boys are having their hair shorn: one of the boys as a tattoo on his heal - three aligned dots on the Achilles tendon. After this unsettling beginning the camera moves to Canada in the office of notary Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard) who has the responsibility of executing the will of his secretary Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal in an illuminating performance that plays through the entire film) and presenting the will to Nawal's Lebanese- Canadian twin children Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) Marwan. The will divides Nawal's worldly goods equally between the children, but describes in detail how the deceased mother is to be buried (naked, face down, with no coffin in an unmarked grave) and provides two letters charging Jeanne and Simon to find the father and brother they did not even know existed. The remainder of the film moves back and forth between the past and the present as the twins attempt to find their living relatives and the story of how Nawal's life was an unbelievable nightmare. Nawal was a Christian Lebanese, had a lover who was a Palestinian, and when her lover is killed she realizes she is pregnant, shaming her family and thus forced to give up her boy child to an orphanage - but not before her grandmother sensitively tattooed the three dots on his heel for future recognition. From that point Nawal becomes a mathematician, a hired killer, is imprisoned and tortured and once again becomes a mother. The twins trace clues as detectives to follow the rocky road of Nawal's life and make discoveries that are astonishing.
Though Lubna Azabal is clearly the central star of this film, the entire cast particularly Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette as the twins is exemplary. Very little of the tragedy of Nawal's life is spared but the power that comes from the moments of discovery of the truths of that life lies in the quiet shock in the eyes of the twins. This is an amazingly powerful film that keeps the audience tension level high making the surprising ending just that much more powerful. The cinematography by André Turpin manages to capture both the vast power of the Middle Eastern desert and villages as well as the moments of intimacy. The musical score by Grégoire Hetzel enhances the atmosphere and the story line very subtly. But in the end it is the sensitive direction of Denis Villeneuve that brings with human tragedy of a story alive. Highly recommended.
Grady Harp