Incendies -2010-2010 File
The film’s reputation was cemented by its awards success. In 2011, it was selected as Canada’s submission for the 83rd Academy Awards and earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It ultimately lost to the Danish film In a Better World , but many critics believed it was a close second. Domestically, it dominated the 31st Genie Awards (now the Canadian Screen Awards), taking home eight trophies, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director for Villeneuve, Best Actress for Azabal, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Who should watch it
Nawal, while in prison, gave birth to twins (Jeanne and Simon) after being raped by the same man. But unbeknownst to her, that man was also her own son, the child she had been searching for. The one she loved, the one she lost, and the one who destroyed her were all the same person. The film’s final, iconic freeze-frame—Nawal lying in a pool of water, staring at the sky—is the face of absolute, apophatic tragedy. Incendies -2010-2010
Finally: “Your mother was my mother too. She gave birth to me when she was fifteen, after the commander raped her. She escaped the militia and fled to a village where no one knew her. She raised me alone until I was six. Then she had to leave—the war was following her. She promised to come back. She never did.”
Emphasizes the isolation of the characters within a vast, uncaring world. The film’s reputation was cemented by its awards success
Represents the rational, academic search for truth, which is shattered by the emotional reality of her mother's life.
The framing relies heavily on wide shots that emphasize the vast, indifferent landscape against the smallness of the human characters. Villeneuve also masterfully incorporates contemporary music; the recurring use of Radiohead’s "You and Whose Army?" over scenes of child soldiers establishes an immediate, unsettling juxtaposition between modern Western art and foreign tragedy. The Climactic Revelation and the Power of Forgiveness Domestically, it dominated the 31st Genie Awards (now
Upon release at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, Incendies won the Golden Lion for Best Film (the top prize). It went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, losing to In a Better World (Denmark)—a decision many critics still lament.
The climax occurs in the notary’s office. The twins bring the man they believe to be their brother and the man who is the prison torturer (their father) together. In a scene of unbearable tension, the notary reads the final letter.
Following the death of their mother, Nawal Marwan, Canadian twins Jeanne and Simon are left two mysterious letters by her notary. One is addressed to a father they believed was dead, and the other to a brother they never knew existed. Their search for answers takes them to their mother's war-torn homeland in the Middle East—an unnamed country heavily inspired by the Lebanese Civil War .
The film was shot primarily in Montreal, Canada, while the Middle Eastern scenes were filmed over 15 days in and around Amman, Jordan. Cinematographer André Turpin captures the two worlds in stark contrast: the sterile, bureaucratic ordinariness of the notary’s office in Montreal versus the sun-bleached, dusty, and dangerous streets of the war-torn city. The sound design is also crucial, from the sudden, shocking silence after an act of violence to the persistent buzzing of flies around the dead. The film’s score, by Grégoire Hetzel, is sparse and melancholy, used with restraint to never overwhelm the raw reality on screen.