Incendies

You know you've watched a phenomenal motion picture when you walk in and out said film a completely different person! Incendies is Denis Villeneuve's Greek tragedy told in the most traumatizing, terrifying, disgusting yet beautiful way possible! The mother of a pair of twin siblings has recently passed away, and before her kids could send her off, she has placed a couple of unusual requests in her will. It's a set of tasks her children needs to complete before they could give her a proper burial. What are those tasks and how it drives the twins through their mother's past will push you through a spiral of horrifying revelations comprising of tragedies you can't unsee, experiences you can't forget and things you wish you never knew happened in the first place!

One of the key highlights here is the way Denis Villeneuve has captured the times of war and revolution in the Middle East. For those who aren't living in countries of this continent, we may have seen how the media has portrayed the situation there before. We may have even developed a fatigue out of seeing plenty monotonous stereotypes, repeated over and over again. But, Denis Villeneuve's work here provides an absolute guarantee that you haven't seen it all, or at least via the wonderful lens and storytelling flare of this exceptionally talented writer-director! The impact is million times stronger as we see these events unfold through the eyes of a commoner like you and me. The violence is sudden, brutal and unfiltered! Snipers killing kids like it's another Sunday, rape specialist raping female prisoners until they break, extremely claustrophobic prison chambers in Kfar Ryat and the scariest scene of all that'll hurt you beyond cure - the bus massacre!

We follow Nawal (Lubna Azabal); our protagonist; a Christian; the mother to both the twins, from the moment she attempts to elope with her lover; a Muslim refugee. The man is shot dead on gunpoint the very first time we see him. She gives birth to their child and said child with a three mark tattoo on the back of his foot is sent away from her. Ever since then, her quest to find the baby began. One event leads to another, until she becomes the person to assassinate the right wing Christian leader who is behind the ongoing religious war. She's raped umpteenth times during her prison days by a torture specialist known as Abou Tarek (Abdelghafour Elaaziz) and bears the twins. The saddest truth of all is Abou Tarek being Nawal's long lost son - while this is partially guessable towards the end of the film, it's a superb revelation regardless that fits like a perfect puzzle! This entire journey is juxtaposed with the daughter's travels to fulfill her mother's wish, and Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin's performance as Jeanne Marwan is simply fantastic! Imagine learning the fact that your mother has been raped out of counts, you are the product of that rape and the rapist was your own brother. The actress' reactions post learning these abysmal truth could not have been done better!

It is no secret that Denis Villeneuve is a modern day master to follow the footsteps of Scorsese, Fincher, Tarantino, Cameron, Spielberg and Nolan. Pure visual storytelling, steady plot progression and raw filmmaking render Incendies as one of the best pictures ever made! Bedsheet covered in blood after newborn birth and henchmen walking through a sensor machine beep at a hotel entrance are just small examples of unflinching scenes. Camerawork can feel amateurish at times, especially when it's handheld. The score, however minimal it is, is menacing! The only questionable aspect would be Jeanne conveniently bumping into people in the Middle East who could speak fluent French, including the school janitor.