Incendies (French: [ɛ̃.sɑ̃.di], "Fires") is a 2010 Canadian war thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, who co-wrote the screenplay with Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne. [12] The project had a budget of $6.5 million,[3] and received funding from Telefilm Canada. What does it mean for them to be so intimately and yet obscurely tied to an inheritance of rape, torture, assassination and terror? Review Incendies Slant Magazine. Parts of the story were based on the life of Souha Bechara. Villeneuve first attended “Incendies,’’ known in English as “Scorched,’’ without any professional motive. The story concerns Canadian twins who travel to their mother's native country in the Middle East to uncover her hidden past amidst a bloody civil war. One of the flashbacks in which … As a young woman, Nawal provokes the violent disapproval of her family when she falls love with a Muslim and flees her hometown for the capital. incendies le sang des promesses 2 by wajdi mouawad. Simon, who seems more deeply scarred by the obscure tragedy of their mother’s solitary, circumspect life, is instructed to seek out another brother, whose existence he and his sister never suspected. Intense and frequent violence, sometimes graphically conveyed. "Incendies" occasionally reveals its theatrical origins but on the whole is re-imagined through vivid cinematic sequences. The movie “Stree” is a nice one with horror and entertainment. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love. [29] However, Martin Morrow of CBC News was unimpressed, saying, "Villeneuve’s screen adaptation strips away all this finely textured flesh and leaves only the bare bones". But if “Incendies” were her story alone, it might have been too much: an overwrought and awkward slog through a bloody stretch of the past. The twins are encouraged and assisted in their quest by Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard) the avuncular notary who had been their mother’s employer for many years. Like Nawal, Nihad's superiors gave him a new life in Canada after the war. [3] It was considered a success in the country. [1] To recreate Beirut, art director André-Line Beauparlant built up rock and debris on a street in Amman. [19] Some of the filming in Jordan took place in the capital of Amman. [11][30][39][40] Criticisms have included charges of melodrama and orientalism. Benicio Del Toro also appears in this film, in which Josh Hutcherson plays a young man who falls in love with a girl only to discover that she is the niece of the notorious Pablo Escobar. The notary’s job is to keep records and specify the mutual obligations of the living and the dead. By chance, Nawal encountered him at a Canadian swimming pool, and saw both the tattoo and his face. Even in French, the phrase “heroic Canadian notary” sounds like a punch line, but it fits this man exactly and also illuminates one of the movies crucial themes. by Radiohead. The knotted destinies of its characters are like the family secrets in a Shakespearean or classical comedy but turned to a darker purpose. [5][6][7] The story is based on events that happened during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990, but the filmmakers attempted to make the location of the plot ambiguous. [27] Marc Cassivi of La Presse claimed the film transcended the play. What could help them understand this legacy and move beyond it? But I find the ending really misjudged … The depth and complexity of her anger is both a product and a mirror of her native country’s self-destructive pathology, and as the full horror of her life is disclosed, she becomes, in her children’s eyes and the audience’s, as grand and tragic as the heroine of an opera. [41], On 22 September 2010, Incendies was chosen to represent Canada at the 83rd Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. Simon (Maxim Gaudette) is told to give his to a brother they didn't know they had. I will leave the plot line out for the benefit of the audience. These places are; a small town in Canada and in Lebanon where present Jeanne Marwan locating her mother history and Past Nawal Marwan having her horror life. Mr. Girard, one of Quebec’s finest actors, has a dumpling face and genial demeanor made for comedy, and he turns Lebel into a marvelously paradoxical figure. WITH: Lubna Azabal (Nawal Marwan), Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin (Jeanne Marwan), Maxim Gaudette (Simon Marwan), Rémy Girard (Notary Jean Lebel), Abdelghafour Elaaziz (Abou Tarek), Allen Altman (Notary Maddad), Mohamed Majd (Chamseddine), Nabil Sawalha (Fahim) and Baya Belal (Maïka). [38] A number of reviews complimented use of the song "You and Whose Army?" While the symbolism and lessons on morality may be heavy-handed, there are very powerful scenes that leave the viewer grappling with the film’s devastating conclusion long after the credits roll. Subsequently, as a student and an activist, a clandestine militant and a political prisoner, she crosses back and forth between the warring groups. Incendies. It is nearly impossible to imagine him either subjected to or responsible for any kind of atrocity. The film is in French/Arabic, so English viewers will have to go by the sub-titles. While the country is unnamed, the events in the film are heavily influenced by the Lebanese Civil War and particularly the story of prisoner Souha Bechara. Incendies also won eight Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. [9], In the United States, the film was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. Incendies is in essence a family drama, astonishingly intense but impressively poised. These entwined plots unfurl in the recognizable, modern world — in Quebec and an unnamed country that closely resembles Lebanon — and at the same time in an allegorical universe governed by the tightly coiled logic of fate. [32], Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars, saying "it wants to be much more than a thriller and succeeds in demonstrating how senseless and futile it is to hate others because of their religion", and Azabal "is never less than compelling". [20] The film opened in Toronto and Vancouver in January 2011. But “I was totally astonished by the power of the story. Incendies is a French-Canadian film that was nominated for a 2010 Academy Award. The perspective of Jeanne and Simon, modern Canadians wholly unaware of their roots in that history, makes the film into something more elusive and complex, a meditation on memory and identity that recalls some of the recent films of Atom Egoyan. How are the twins to understand their relationship with their mother in the light of what they learn about her? Its style is incomparable and its content is even better: it summons Oedipus to Lebanon's civil war where his guilt becomes greater than before. Directed by Denis Villeneuve; written by Mr. Villeneuve, based on the stage play by Wajdi Mouawad; director of photography, André Turpin; edited by Monique Dartonne; music by Grégoire Hetzel; production design by André-Line Beauparlant; costumes by Sophie Lefebvre; produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw; released by Sony Pictures Classics. The shock of learning the truth caused Nawal to suffer a stroke which led to her decline and untimely death at age sixty. In French and Arabic, with English subtitles. It spans four centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious red-coloured violin and its many owners. The title translates as "scorched," and the movie tells the brutal story … And though “Incendies” provides an unflinching account of brutality, it also suggests that to keep such an account can be a transformative act of kindness. Among the film’s subjects is kinship, the often painful ways that bonds of blood connect strangers and enemies. [9] Villeneuve acknowledged unfamiliarity with Arab culture, but was drawn to Incendies as "a modern story with a sort of Greek tragedy element". [18], The film was shot in Montreal and Jordan. incendies bilingual ca denis villeneuve dvd Some time later, Nihad visits it. [21] By the end of April 2011, the film grossed $4.7 million. When their mother, Nawal (Lubna Azabal), dies, Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette), twins who have grown up Canadian, discover that her last will and testament requires them to set off on a kind of scavenger hunt across time and geography. But if “Incendies” were her story alone, it might have been too much: an overwrought and awkward slog through a bloody stretch of the past. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports 93% positive reviews based on 121 reviews, with an average rating of 7.92/10. "Incendies" is a mystery story that is brief but yet long, subtle but straightforward. [42] It made the shortlist on 19 January 2011, one of nine films and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on 25 January 2011.[43][44]. [9] He showed Mouawad some completed scenes to convince the initially reluctant playwright to grant permission for the film. [13], For the part of Nawal, Villeneuve said he conducted an extensive search for actresses across Canada. The site's critics consensus reads, "It's messy, overlong, and a touch melodramatic, but those flaws pale before Incendies' impressive acting and devastating emotional impact. incendies mouawad wajdi 9782760936188 books ca. Incendies 2010 Plot Summary IMDb. — After travelling to her mother's native country, Jeanne gradually uncovers this past, and persuades Simon to join her. Though its details are fictional, this chronicle is impressively nuanced in its rendering of Lebanese politics and society in the 1970s and ’80s. [36] Incendies was named by Stephen Holden of The New York Times as one of the 10 best films of 2011. Her son's orphanage in Kfar Khout is destroyed by a Muslim militant, Chamseddine, who converts him into an Islamic child soldier. Before Incendies, Villeneuve made Polytechnique (2009), a true story about the slaughter of students, mostly women, by a young man resentful of feminists at a Montreal university. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play, Incendies is structured as a detective story. [8][9], Director Denis Villeneuve first saw Wajdi Mouawad's play Incendies at Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal in 2004, commenting "I had this strong intuition that I was in front of a masterpiece". In present-day Canada, a woman (Lubna Azabal) dies and leaves her two grown-up children with some annoyingly cryptic hints about her youth in a fictional Middle Eastern country. Her family murders her lover and nearly shoots her as an honour killing, but her grandmother spares her, making her promise to leave the village after the birth of her baby and start a new life in the fictional city of Daresh. 1 + 1 = 1. [3], For the scenes filmed in Jordan, Villeneuve used a Lebanese and Iraqi crew, though he feared the war scenes would be too reminiscent of bad experiences for them. The twins find Nihad in Canada and deliver Nawal's letters to him. Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies,” a film very much occupied with some of the grisly realities of recent history, nonetheless has the structure, and some of the atmosphere, of an ancient folk tale. Nawal gets her gravestone in the aftermath of the letters being sent. Incendies ("Scorched") is a dark, powerful and haunting thriller-drama from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. Those chapters, shifting from hillside villages to cities and refugee camps, from the verdant north of the country to its dusty south, give Mr. Villeneuve’s film novelistic depth and epic expansiveness. A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. With help from Lebel, they learn their brother's name is Nihad of May and track down Chamseddine. The grandmother tattoos the back of the baby's heel and sends him to an orphanage. [26] The Montreal Gazette's Brendan Kelly gave the film five stars and called it a "masterwork". The director separate the film shooting evenly between indoor and outdoor environment. [11] Although she was 30, Villeneuve thought she appeared 18 and could play the part throughout the entire film, using makeup. Their ordeal is interrupted by a series of flashbacks telling the story of their mother, Nawal Marwan, before leading them to uncover a deeply disturbing secret. A series of flashbacks reveal Nawal came from a Christian Arab family in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and that she fell in love with a refugee named Wahab, resulting in her pregnancy. Denis Villeneuve Week continues here on Plot and Theme with Incendies, the final foreign language film from the director, and his only film to receive an Oscar nod (Best Foreign Language film in 2010). incendies times higher education the. But strict verisimilitude would not serve the dramatic ends that “Incendies,” based on a play of the same name by Wajdi Mouawad, sets out to serve. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play of the same name, Incendies stars Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Rémy Girard. A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. The ghost referred by the villagers as ‘stree’ is the ghost of a woman who worked as a prostitute in the village many years ago. Incendies Villeneuve is a gentleman when it comes to respect the genre he plays in. The film was shot mainly in Montreal, with a few days spent in Jordan. Denis Villeneuve, the director of "Incendies," discusses his family drama. [9] Villeneuve spent five years working on the screenplay, in between directing two films. [46] Incendies also won the Prix Jutra for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actress (Azabal), Editing, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes and Sound. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film, List of submissions to the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, List of Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "Les coulisses d'Incendies : plonger dans le décor", "L'ex-kamikaze Soha Béchara dénonce le sort des Palestiniens", "Will Denis Villeneuve's 'Incendies' light a fire under Oscar? Many people might say Incendies is a story about war because this film contains complicated issues that today’s war is supposed to combine: ideology, religion, violence and history. This is a plot for a thriller, really, and Denis Villeneuve's Oscar-nominated "Incendies" doesn't shy away from that truth. [4], Incendies received highly positive reviews from critics. DV: No, it is based on events that occur in the Lebanese civil war in the 70’s, for instance, in the 70’s and 80’s, there was the Sabra and Shatila massacre or the bus attack that occurred in 1975 in Beirut. Their travels in a relatively peaceful and functional 21st-century quasi-Lebanon are interwoven with episodes from their mother’s life during the nation’s long and gruesome civil war. [30] University of Berlin film scholar Claudia Kotte wrote the film, along with Monsieur Lazhar (2011) and War Witch (2012), represent a break in the Cinema of Quebec from focus on local history to global concerns, with Incendies adding Oedipal themes. No, it is not a reference to Tarkovsky's Nostalghia.Disguised as a story set in turbulent times about the quest of a pair of twins embarking on a revelatory journey to fulfill their mother's last request, at its core, Incendies is a story about an admirable woman. [17] While shooting in Jordan, to research his role, actor Maxim Gaudette toured a Palestinian refugee camp near Amman. It premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in September 2010 and was released in Quebec on 17 September 2010. It is a quest narrative, about children searching out the mysteries of their parentage, and also the story of a resourceful heroine, the mother of those children, surviving an almost unimaginable series of ordeals. [35] Ty Burr, writing for The Boston Globe, gave the film three and a half stars, praising a bus scene as harrowing but saying the climax is "a plot twist that feels like one coincidence too far", that "leaves the audience doing math on their fingers rather than reeling in shock". [45] Along with Incendies, Villeneuve won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award in 2009 for the film Polytechnique, the first Canadian filmmaker to win it twice in a row. The instrument, made in Cremona in 1681 with a future forecast by tarot cards, makes its way to Montreal in 1997, where an appraiser identifies it and it goes to auction. Incendies was shot at two main location and put into two time space. BT: Is the play based on a true story? [33] He later selected the film as his favourite to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[34] though it lost to In a Better World from Denmark. [28] Peter Howell, writing for The Toronto Star, gave the film four stars, called it "a commanding film of multiple revelations", and the best of 2010, and praised Lubna Azabal as "first amongst equals". Denis Villeneuve2010 | Canada/France | Drama / Mystery / War | 131 mins | 1.85:1 | French, Arabic & EnglishM18 (passed clean) for… Incendies is an incredible film, and arguably Villeneuve's masterpiece. Incendies Trauma and tragedy in the Middle East World. 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