Incendies

Based on Wajdi Mouawad's titular play, Québécois writer-director Denis Villeneuve's Oscar-nominated French film opens with a brief prologue in a desert village, after which the story begins as Montreal notary Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard) summons twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) for a reading of their recently deceased mother's will. The pair are handed two letters to deliver—one for a father they thought dead; the other for a brother they never knew existed. While Simon is skeptical about this posthumous mystery, mathematician sister Jeanne is intrigued, and both travel to their mother's fictionalized homeland (suggestive of Lebanon) to find their “lost” parent and sibling, along the way unearthing family secrets as Incendies moves between the present and the past. During the 1970s, it seems that their then-teenage mom, Nawal (Lubna Azabal), was caught in the bitter civil war between Christians and Muslims. Although she was a Christian, her life was intimately intertwined with the Muslim community and she suffered harrowing atrocities, imprisonment, and a Middle Eastern-style “Sophie's choice” before she emigrated to Canada. Although occasionally muddled, this melancholy drama—punctuated with mournful music emphasizing the underlying violence-begets-violence theme—benefits from memorable performances on the part of the leads. Reminding us of the fact that children often have little idea of what went on in their parents' early lives, this is recommended. [Note: Blu-ray/DVD combo extras include audio commentary by director Denis Villeneuve, a “Remembering the Ashes: Incendies Through Their Eyes” behind-the-scenes featurette (44 min.), trailers, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine foreign film.] (S. Granger)