Incendies

By Benjamin Lutz

The short:

A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. 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.

The long:

Incendies is a detective story, a tantalizing puzzle movie. It's set in Quebec and in an unnamed Middle Eastern country that is pretty clearly Lebanon. A pair of twins in their 20s — Jeanne and her strangely hostile brother, Simon — attend the reading of their late mother's will, which instructs them to locate a father they thought had died decades earlier and a brother they never knew existed.

And as they embark on what amounts to a grim scavenger hunt, there are flashbacks of their mother, Nawal, a Christian woman who's disgraced when she falls in love with a Muslim refugee, whom her brothers promptly murder.

To watch or not to watch?

To watch!!! You'd never guess Incendies is based on a play by Quebec writer Wajdi Mouawad, who fled a war-ravaged Lebanon for France when he was 8. Director Denis Villeneuve has made it breathe onscreen so that you feel as if you're moving with the characters through a maze. This is a powerful movie.