Incendies (2011)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on June 7, 2011 @ tonymacklin.net.

Incendies is a grueling, harrowing trek in search of identity.

In French and Arabic, it was a Canadian nominee for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar. Director Denis Villaneuve based the movie on a play by Wajdi Mouawad.

Incendies jumps from the Middle East of the 1970s to present day Canada to the present day Middle East -- back and forth.

In present-day Quebec, twins (symbol) -- Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux) and Simon Marwan (Maxime Gaudette) -- attend the reading of the will of Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal), their mother.

The will (symbol) is read by notary (symbol) Jean Lebel (Remy Girard), for whom Nawal served as secretary for 18 years.

The will sends them on a chase (freighted with symbols) for the truth about their mother that lurks beyond foreign borders. Until they accomplish their task, her will says she does not allow herself to be buried properly.

Jeanne -- a grad student of higher mathematics -- is given the assignment of finding their father, who presumably is dead in the Middle East, to give him an unopened letter.

Simon's charge is to deliver another letter to a man in the Middle East, a brother whom the twins did not know existed. Simon rejects the idea.

But Jeanne embarks on the rocky trip into the past and goes to the Middle East. As her trip progresses, she finds a world and a mother she never really knew.

In the past her mother suffered horrible torments and exhibited extraordinary will and courage in the face of them. Her life was one of loss, guilt, and scarring secrets.

If all this smacks of contrivance, it is, but it also has undeniable power. In Incendies the war in the Middle East between Christians and Muslims is one of terror and cruelty. Both sides are ruled by vengeance and brutality. One unforgettable sequence is the conflagration of a bus. It could be either side. Both are brutal and dehumanized.

Incendies is a film of provocative equations. As Simon cryptically says, "One plus one equals one."

Incendies is more an emotional experience than an intellectual exercise. It's more the heart than the head.

The mother's fate depends on that.