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Incendies is a devastating family drama that follows two siblings (Jeanne and Simon) who, after their mother's death, dig deep into her past to uncover the truth about their father and their lost brother. The movie is a mix of Nawal's (Jeanne and Simon's mom) life in flashbacks and the present, and then finally Jeanne and Simon's trip to the Middle East. For me, the movie cuts right in the perfect time the life of Nawal to go back to the present, preserving the mystery but also unveiling Nawal's dark past. The saddest thing is that this story could've perfectly happened in real life knowing how different society is and all the wars there has been in the Middle East. Lubna Azabal's performance was stunning, as she really managed to show the pain her character was feeling. Denis Villeneuve's direction is excellent, as he makes everything shown in the story relate in the final act.
I think nobody expected that ending and that twist. Towards the end though, I did guess that Marwan was Jeanne and Simon's brother, but I totally didn't see coming that he was their father as well, just like I didn't expect such a brutal story. Although there is no indication of where Nawal's living, it's clear that it's Lebanon, for the ongoing civil war. The time of war at Lebanon was very dangerous, and you had to be careful where you were because, depending on the place, you had to fake your religion. Nawal is a Christian, who where seen as terrorists and rebels by the muslims, and that's why Nawal suffered a lot while in prison. I liked how the movie reflected the war at Lebanon and at the same time explained Nawal's story, both things were well complemented.
I really liked how the bus scene showed things are temporary. Nawal was peacefully sleeping when, suddenly, she wakes up and sees she's in danger. The christians retained the bus because it was full of muslims, and this time it was Nawal's religion that saved her. It is also ironic, because to get into the bus she had to fake she was a muslim by covering her hair and to avoid death, she had to defend herself by showing her real religion, Christianity. In the bus scene, everything Nawal used to have disappears in one moment, and the huge impact can be seen on Nawal's face, greatly acted by Lubna Azabal.
In the overture of Incendies, a group of young boys have most of their hair shaved off by soldiers. There's this one boy who has three vertical dots tattooed on the back of his foot, who stares into the camera with a look of monstrous hate, a stare that really digs into the mind. It's not until the end of the film that you understand the full implications of that stare, what led up to it, and what happened afterward. When you do, it hits you like a blow. For a moment, you also get to understand why Marwan did what he did: he was full of hate as a consequence of what happened to him when he was a little boy. One of the messages of this film is that hate can lead to the worst of things, and it can slowly burn a person from the inside (not literally).
By @moviemaniac5
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Based on Wajdi Mouawad's 2005 play "Scorched". Villeneuve's film is not a film especially for all audiences. It requires a certain sensitivity to digest a tragedy, a certain knowledge of history and an appreciation of a certain form of cinema.
1. The tragedy: Villeneuve faithfully follows the emotional crescendo of the theatrical play, in which the facts lead to increasingly intolerable truths. However, I would point out that the tragedy we are about to see is mediated by the focus on two specific points of view. We do not see the tragedy from the outside, but we witness it from the point of view of the children who ignore what is happening and from the memory of the mother before she dies.
2. Lebanon. The challenge in these parts has been enormous when it comes to setting the context of the story. Nawal's story is set in the 1970s, during the civil war between Christian nationalists and Palestinian refugees. Mouwad and Villeneuve do not invent anything. Everything that is told in the film happened in real life.
3. A cinematic approach. Villeneuve does several things well, the first one is to organize the double storyline in 9 chapters, centered on characters and spaces: The twins, Nawal, Darash, Derassa, Kafl Khour, The Woman Who Sings, Nihad, Chamabdin, etc. The director is underpinning the destination places of each section, closer and closer to the final destination.
The second is the use of symbols. Mathematics appears as a rational way of approaching reality and as a form of solitude. The number has a special significance, because it represents the failure of rational inquisition to the world of hatred and war. The second great symbol is the opposition of fire and water. The pool appears as a space where to calm the "fires" of truth. Fire burns and hides.
Villeneuve does not show everything, only that which leads to the devastating ethical-moral consequence. Anything goes to get us to what the director wants to show us.
Moreover, with sound and music Villeneuve combines disconcerting uses of Radiohead, with Lebanese lullabies.
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