INCENDIES (2010)

DVD-PICK

Incendies(2010), is a French-Arabic movie directed by Denis Villeneuve gained much appreciation for its excellent plot, well crafted screenplay and some amazing performance by the leading actors. The movie is based on a play called Incendies by Wajdi Mouwad.

PLOT

Nawan Marwan (Luban Azabal), the mother of Jeanne (Mellisa Poulin) and Simon hand over two letters and a surprisingly unique will to her lawyer for whom she worked as a secretary before her death. The mother expects nothing from her children but to find their father and brother. The twins are shocked when the letters are given to them, because the will of her mother is quite different from an ordinary one. The letters are supposed to be handed over to their father and brother, but before them lay a tough task of finding them in a foreign country. Jeanne decides to search her father and brother in Middle East, whereas her brother stays back in Canada but soon joins her. The story moves rather slowly than expected but without losing its track it peaks well at the right moments sensing the pulse of the audience, hats off to the director for a well stitched screen-play. The movie fluctuates from past to present to show the war atrocities in the name of religion only helps the director to tell about the sufferings of young Nawan and the war atrocities in the name of religion. As the story slowly unravels before us, we head to a shocking revelation, something which we can’t expect in an Indian movie. The movie was well received by the critics and bagged several international awards but sadly missed the Oscars. For a movie despite a strong story line losing in prestigious events like Oscars certainly gives us a mixed feeling, and even occasionally makes me to question the credentials of Academy Awards. Nevertheless the movie scored well with the audience which is I think more important than anything else.

Bottomline: A heart rending master piece which should’nt be missed out.