20/20 Filmsight - Film Criticism by David O'Connell

In a detailed and richly cinematic manner, the Oscar-nominated Incendies (2010) presents the parallel stories of two women, a mother and daughter. Upon her death, Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabel) has left her twins Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) letters to be delivered to a father they believed to be dead and a brother they never knew existed.

French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s latest film is meticulously wrought in a way that allows it to be structured like a mystery that gradually unfolds through alternate time zones. In order to trace clues to these men’s identities, Jeanne travels to her mother’s homeland in the Middle East. Initially she encounters resistance and revulsion in Nawal’s village.

Here, Jeanne finds it difficult to grasp the ramifications of what she learns of a mother who, it seems, sought a life of politically-charged activism after disgracing herself in her family’s eyes by falling pregnant to a local man. Nawal’s fervent political stand would lead to a defining act of violence; one that would, in turn, lead to imprisonment for 15 years. Yet despite a relentless reign of terror at the hands of her captors, Nawal survives.

Villaneuve’s detailed screenplay is a wonderful showcase for its two fine actresses but especially for Azabel; it is she who bears the brunt of the emotionally-charged complexities the director has woven into his narrative. Every tortured emotion is etched upon her face; every visitation of violence another spear into her heart. Yet nothing shakes this woman’s resolve; the further Jeanne digs the fact that emerges from the snippets of information she accrues is of her mother’s extraordinary fortitude in never allowing herself to be broken, even by her torturer in prison.

Desormeaux-Poulin, who bears enough of a striking resemblance to Azabel that it’s easy to imagine a genetic link between the two, is afforded a less showy role but she too excels in sketching, through a minimum of externalising, the dignity and courage of Jeanne’s search.

Villeneuve proves himself unafraid of long, static takes, whilst a smattering of postcard-perfect vistas momentarily relieve us of the dire direction of Nawal’s life - characterised as it is by staunch resistance - as well as Jeanne’s investigation to uncover her mother’s younger self through the hazy refractions of time.

The end result is a story visually enhanced and authenticated by its creator’s willingly to allow time to breathe life into every perfectly judged sequence. The revelation of the identity of the twins’ father and brother, when it comes, is stunning, eliciting disbelief. Is it possible? Yes, but highly improbable and if Villeneuve seems over-reliant on a series of unlikely coincidences it’s only a minor misstep in what remains a vividly-imagined journey, one that looks to the future without ever exonerating the past.




I say: A devestating tale of a secretive past rising inexorably to the surface.

See it for: For the stunning work of Azabel especially, though director Villeneuve deserves credit for the twisted convolutions of his plot alone.