CANADA: Incendies

2010 / 130mins / French & Arabic w/ English subtitles/ Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Cast:Rémy Girard, Allen Altman, Lubna Azabal

Twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan weren’t expecting much from their mother Nawal’s will. They are understandably stunned when Jean Lebel, long-time friend of Nawal’s, reads her last wishes: for the twins to hand-deliver two letters, one to a father they thought dead, the other to a brother they never knew existed. The twins return to their mother’s birthplace in Lebanon, and slowly piece together her heartbreaking story: that of a life mortgaged by the self-fuelling cycle of war, hate, and exceptional courage and resolve.

Based on the play by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, staged last year in London under the English title Scorched, Incendies probes the open wounds of the Lebanese Civil War. The film is the fourth feature by award-winning director and screenwriter Denis Villeneuve, whose unique visual style and fresh approach to storytelling have won him over 30 awards. It has been selected for 2010 Venice Film Festival, 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

With support from Québec Government Office, London.