Incendies
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Distributed by
Sony Pictures Classics
There’s nothing better than when your expectations for a movie are surpassed to the point that you wonder why you even doubted the celluloid work of art in front of you in the first place.
For me, the most recent case of this phenomenon is the Oscar-nominated Incendies, a Canadian film that, admittedly, I wasn’t entirely excited for. The idea of sitting through a subtitled film dealing with a mother’s past sounded mundane and exactly like the kind of film the Academy loves, but I hate. Fifteen minutes into the film, though, I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Incendies follows the journey of twins Simon (Maxim Gaudette) and Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) Marwan as they attempt to fulfill their mother Nawal’s (Lubna Azabal) dying wish. Nawal writes in her will that she refuses to be properly buried until the twins locate their father, whom they thought to be dead, and also their brother, whom they never knew existed.
This mysterious request leads the twins deep into the Middle East, where Nawal’s intricate past is slowly unraveled before us. Her story is told vividly in brutal flashbacks to her pre-Canadian life, leading to the shocking climax during the last 15 minutes when all is revealed.
Films that have a shock twist ending are difficult to get right. Either the twist is predictable and no audience member is, in fact, shocked, or the twist comes so far out of left field that the audience is left with a sour taste in their mouth, wondering how everything fit together, if at all.
However, Incendies manages to strike the perfect balance between interesting and understandable, making the reveal all the more satisfying.
Special mention has to go to its cinematography, which somehow manages to show brutality through a beautiful lens.
Lubna Azabal’s acting also gets a nod. Her performance strikes you as a firsthand account in a documentary, not an actor merely reacting to her fellow actors.
Between the amazing cinematography, acting, story and twist ending, Incendies will leave you shaken.