Incendies

I went into this not knowing what to expect, other than it was a French-Canadian film directed by Denis Villeneuve. The film opens with a disturbing scene of young boys having their heads shaved and apparently being inducted into being child soldiers in an unnamed middle-eastern country, before switching to an office in Canada where a notary is reading the will of the recently deceased Nawan Mawal, an unassuming immigrant from the Middle East who had worked as his secretary for 18 years, to her twin 20-something children Jeanne and Simon.

The will contains some unusual provisions - she is to be buried simply, naked and face down, without prayers or headstone until a promise is fulfilled. The notary then hands two letters to the children - one to be delivered to their father, who they thought was dead, and the other to a brother who they had not previously been aware of. Simon reacts with bemused anger but Jeanne resolves to travel to the Levant to track down her brother and uncover the mysteries of Nawan's life.

The story is told through a mix of flashbacks and contemporary scenes, as the truth is slowly uncovered, showing Nawan caught up in the midst of a brutal civil war between Nationalist Christian militias and Muslim rebels in a country that is strongly implied to be the Lebanon. Key events are drawn from that bloody and protracted conflict, with the central character of Nawan being based on a real person called Souha Bechara.

The conclusion of the film is a grim one, perhaps with one twist too many, but it certainly had the intended effect of showing what life in the Middle East is like during the endless wars that have cursed the region. Definitely worth a watch.