Incendiary (2011)

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve | 130 minutes | drama | Actors: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, Nabil Sawalha, Baya Belal, Bader Alami, Karim Babin, Yousef Shweihat

There are those movies that rumble on for a few days after seeing them. ‘Incendies’ is such a movie. The film is based on the successful play by Wajdi Mouawad. He lives in Canada and fled Lebanon at a young age. ‘Incendies’ premiered as a play in 2003 and has won many international awards. The piece was also performed in the Netherlands in early 2010 under the title: ‘Branden’ and received rave reviews. The director Denis Villeneuve saw the play and knew immediately that he wanted to make it into a film. With the permission and help of Wajdi Mouawad, he has translated the piece to the silver screen.

‘Incendies’ begins with the twins Jeanne and Simon in the notary’s office. Their mother has passed away and he reads her last wishes. They receive two letters, one for their brother whom they never knew existed, the other for their father who they thought had died. To find the men, but above all to understand the silence of her mother’s last years, Jeanne travels to the Middle East.

As the daughter’s quest begins, the viewer learns about mother Nawal’s life history through flashbacks. It begins as a young woman, in love and pregnant, without being married. She is a stain on the family honor and she must leave. She gives her newborn son up for adoption and she herself leaves for the big city. Encouraged by her grandmother, she has to learn to write, read and think so that she can do something about her situation. She leaves for an uncle in the big city where she will study French. When war breaks out between Christians and Muslims, the south of the country comes under heavy fire. There her son was left in an orphanage. She travels south through the war zone, all to find her son. She promised that at birth, so she won’t rest until she does.

The different chapters in the lives of both the mother and the children are always announced with large red letters in the screen: from the village of birth to the place where she thinks she can find her son and beyond. The way the life of the woman and everyone around her has been portrayed is very effective. The camera work, music and acting is excellent. The pace of the film may be slow, but that is necessary to be able to process everything as a viewer. To prevent the film from becoming melodramatic, the director has opted for raw realism and that hits like a bomb.

Exactly in which country in the Middle East the film takes place is more or less left unknown because the story is actually separate from that. It is exemplary of any country torn apart by war and violence. Besides the fact that ‘Incendies’ tells a more than moving life story of a woman, it is mainly about what war and revenge do to people; the wounds that are made and the scars that remain. If violence is always returned with more violence, where does it stop? ‘Incendies’ is heavy, hard, but most of all heartbreaking and won’t leave you alone anymore.