Incendies

A friend recommended that I go to this movie.  She had gone, not because Incendies was nominated for an Academy Award, but because she would go to see anything of Denis Villeneuve's.  I've now joined the Villeneuve fan club.

Incendies was a complex film with an intricate plot, spanning two generations, two countries (Canada and Lebanon), and two time periods.  It starts with twins who are charged in their mother's will to trace their father and brother.  The quest takes first Jeanne, and then her twin Simon, to Lebanon on a sleuthing mission.  Interwoven with this quest is that of their mother, who lived through the cruel civil war in Lebanon in the eighties.  After being captured during the war, she is brutalized in a Lebanese prison.  Yet she is remembered as 'the woman who sings', a testament to her courage and fortitude. 

Incendies is a powerful film, documenting inhumanity in the name of war and religion.  Incendies is a film of people's ability to rise above their conditions and live a life of meaning, and, ultimately, conciliation.  Two views - take your pick.

Put this on your must-see list.