Language: Arabic, French.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: Denis Villeneuve(scenario) | Wajdi Mouawad (play) | Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (collaboration) | Denis Villeneuve (dialogue)
Genre: Drama | Mystery | War
Cast: Lubna Azabal | Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin | Maxim Gaudette
Streaming on Microsoft , Amazon Prime.
Disclaimer: The movie is intended for Mature audiences and not recommended for kids.
“1+1=1”
From the director of Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 and a version of Dune in the making: yeah, you probably would have guessed him by now, Denis Villeneuve is nothing short of a Genius and is one of the best contemporary Directors in the world. Incendies is for those who are patient (130 min runtime), love a great story, and believe that the best movies in the world are Drama. It’s for those who love the classics, it’s like a long good book with amazing characters. It’s poetic, poignant and makes you uncomfortable, yet filled with the comfort of love.
A mother’s last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their roots. Nawal’s (Mother) will makes reference to not keeping a promise, denying her a proper gravestone and casket, unless Jeanne and Simon (the Twins) track down their brother and their father who they believed was dead. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults’ voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.
Delving no further into the plot, I recommend this masterpiece for everyone who loves great movies, with amazing performances, details, emotions even if they are slightly slow. The movie kicks in slowly and ends with a finale that will etch this movie permanently on your mind, like a tattoo on your heel. Just like almost all Villenueve movies, the actresses have a significant role and this can be considered a movie where the female characters are more powerful or rather more significant than the male characters, It shows the suffering of women during wars as candidly and realistically as possible and how most of them choose to fight battles even if not on the warfield.
It makes you reflect upon questions like are wars a solution for anything? Why do people hate and differentiate other people on the basis of very superficial factors? Is there a love more powerful than a mother’s to her children? (even if this sounds cliche to the core). When will love finally triumph over hatred and violence?
Verdict : 6/7 stars.
Brilliant.
Trivia:
“Incendies” is French for conflagrations (or fires), but the film kept its French title in many countries, including the USA. In many countries, the title translates to “Incendies – The Woman who Sings”.
Although shot in Jordan, the Middle Eastern country in which the film takes place was deliberately left unnamed. Some viewers have noted the word “Palestine” visible on a window in Nawal’s school, but the Christian-Muslim conflict would seem to imply the setting is Lebanon, the birthplace of playwright Wajdi Mouawad.
This film won the Best Feature Film awarded by the jury at the 2011 Adelaide Film Festival. Director Denis Villeneuve responded by saying that “As a poetic sign of gratitude to [the] Adelaide Film Festival, I’ll give the name of ‘Adelaide’ to one of my main characters in my next film. So thank you one thousand times to [the] Adelaide Film Festival!”. However Villeneuve has yet to name any of his characters Adelaide in any of his films since.
Near the beginning of the film, when Simon finds his mother in the hospital hallway, the young boy seen at the beginning of the shot is director Denis Villeneuve’s youngest son, Sasha.
The math problem Jeanne introduces in class is the Collatz Conjecture.
read more exciting trivia at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255953/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
