This (relative) small budget film, ‘Incendies’ was written and directed by Award winning French Canadian visionary, Denis Villeneuve. This must watch 2010 released film was adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play of the same name. Premiering at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in September 2010 and released in Quebec on 17 September 2010, ‘Incendies’ went on to receive critical acclaim in Canada and abroad and won numerous awards. It also got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011.
Although no countries are actually mentioned, the film closely portrays events similar to the Lebanese Civil War and has taken influence from the life of prisoner of war, Souha Bechara. Most of the movie was shot in Montreal with a few days shot in Jordan. The script was co-written by Denis Villeneuve and Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne.
The film follows a pair of twins, Simon and Jeanne Marwan who meets with French Canadian notary Jean Lebel, their mother’s employer and family friend. Their mother, Nawal Marwan has passed away and asked her children, in her will, to track down their father and older brother, both of whom the twins didn’t know existed till now. Jeanne accepts her mother’s quest, while Simon, who has had a difficult relationship with his mother is reluctant. Eventually SImon agrees and both siblings go on a life-altering journey which changes the perception of their mother when they find out what all she has done and gone through.
This beautiful piece of film will be stored in many film archives for its brilliant storytelling and direction. This movie shows how skewered a perception that most Western movies and news outlets provide about the Middle-East and even if a lot of their culture is very different from “normality”, there are still good people in the Middle-East and bad people among “the normal”.
‘Incendies’ is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.