| Incendies | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Denis Villeneuve |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | Incendies byWajdi Mouawad |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | André Turpin |
| Edited by | Monique Dartonne |
| Music by | Grégoire Hetzel |
Production company | micro_scope[1] |
| Distributed by | Entertainment One |
Release dates | |
Running time | 130 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Languages | Arabic[2] French |
| Budget | $6.5 million[3] |
| Box office | $16 million[4] |
Incendies (French:[ɛ̃sɑ̃di]ⓘ; English:Fires) is a 2010 Canadianwartragedy film directed byDenis Villeneuve, who co-wrote the screenplay with Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne. Adapted fromWajdi Mouawad's play of thesame name,Incendies starsLubna Azabal,Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin,Maxim Gaudette, andRémy Girard.
The story concerns Canadian twins who travel to their mother's native country in theLevant to uncover her hidden past amidst a bloody civil war. While the country is unnamed, the events in the film are heavily influenced by theLebanese Civil War and particularly the story of the prisonerSouha Bechara. The film was shot mainly inMontreal, with fifteen days spent inJordan.
It premiered at theVenice andToronto Film Festivals in September 2010, and was released inQuebec on 17 September 2010. It met with widespread critical acclaim in Canada and abroad and won numerous awards.
In 2011, it was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.Incendies also won eightGenie Awards, includingBest Motion Picture.
Following the death of their mother, Nawal, anArabimmigrant in Canada, Jeanne and her twin brother Simon meet withFrench Canadian notary Jean Lebel, their mother's employer and family friend. Nawal's will refers to not keeping a promise, denying her a proper gravestone and casket, unless Jeanne and Simon track down their mysterious brother, of whose existence they were previously unaware, and their father, who they believed was dead. Nawal has left two letters; one is to be delivered to Jeanne and Simon's father, and the other is to be delivered to their brother. Jeanne accepts; Simon, on the other hand, seemingly having had a more difficult relationship with Nawal and her unusual personality, is reluctant to join Jeanne on this pursuit.
Nawal came from aChristian Arab family in aLevantine country, and she fell in love with arefugee named Wahab, resulting in her pregnancy. Her family murders her lover and nearly shoots her in anhonor killing, but her grandmother spares her, making her promise to leave the village after her baby's birth and start a new life in the city of Daresh. The grandmother tattoos the back of the baby's heel and sends him to an orphanage in Kfar Khout.
While Nawal is at university in Daresh a few years later, civil war andwar crimes break out, with Nawal opposing the war onhuman rights grounds. Her son's orphanage is destroyed byMuslim militants. Nawal leaves Daresh to try to find her son and boards a bus full of Muslim refugees. Christian Nationalists shoot the driver and fire into the bus full of passengers, only missing Nawal and a mother with her daughter. As the Nationalists prepare to set the bus on fire, the survivors try to escape towards the back of the bus. Nawal shows her crucifix and tells the Nationalists that she is Christian. She attempts to save the girl by claiming her as her own, but the girl runs towards the burning bus, calling for her mother, and is shot dead. Nawal finds her way back to town and joins the Muslim fighters. She tutors the son of a nationalist leader, eventually earning enough trust to smuggle in a gun to shoot the leader. She is imprisoned in Kfar Ryat and sings through the screams of other prisoners, earning her the nickname "The Woman Who Sings". To attempt to break her, she is raped by torturer Abou Tarek who leaves her saying, "Sing now". She consequently gives birth to the twins.
After traveling to her mother's native country, Jeanne gradually uncovers this past and persuades Simon to join her. With help from Lebel, they learn their brother's name is Nihad of May (the month he was born in) and track down Chamseddine. Simon meets with him and Chamseddine reveals that he attacked orphanage in Kfar Khout, where he spares the children and converts Nihad into anIslamicchild soldier. He then reveals the war-mad Nihad was captured by the nationalists, turned by them, trained as a torturer, and then sent to Kfar Ryat, where he took the name Abou Tarek, making him both the twins' maternal half-brother and father; as such, both letters are addressed to the same person. Like Nawal, Nihad's superiors gave him a new life in Canada after the war. By chance, Nawal encountered him at a Canadian swimming pool and saw both the tattoo (proving him as her son) and his face (proving him as her rapist). The shock of learning the truth caused Nawal to suffer a stroke, which led to her decline and untimely death at age 60.
The twins find Nihad in Canada and deliver Nawal's letters to him. He opens both of them; the first letter addresses him as the twins' father, the rapist, and is filled with contempt. The second letter addresses him as the twins' brother and is instead written with caring words, saying that he, as Nawal's son, is deserving of love. Horrified at the truth, Nihad tries to chase after the twins, but they are gone.
Nawal gets her gravestone. Sometime later, Nihad visits it.
Parts of the story were based on the life ofSouha Bechara.[5][6][7] The story is based on events that happened during theLebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990, but the filmmakers attempted to make the location of the plot ambiguous.[8][9]
DirectorDenis Villeneuve first sawWajdi Mouawad's playIncendies atThéâtre de Quat'Sous inMontreal in 2004, commenting "I had this strong intuition that I was in front of a masterpiece".[9] Villeneuve acknowledged unfamiliarity withArab culture, but was drawn toIncendies as "a modern story with a sort ofGreek tragedy element".[10] In adapting the screenplay, Villeneuve, while keeping the story structure and characters, replaced "all" the dialogue, even envisioning asilent film, abandoning the idea due to expense.[9] He showed Mouawad some completed scenes to convince the initially reluctant playwright to grant permission for the film.[9] Villeneuve spent five years working on the screenplay, in between directing two films.[11] Mouawad later praised the film as "brilliantly elegant" and gave Villeneuve full credit.[12] The project had a budget of $6.5 million,[3] and received funding fromTelefilm Canada.[13]
For the part of Nawal, Villeneuve said he conducted an extensive search for actresses across Canada.[11] He considered casting the main character to be the most challenging, and at one point contemplated using two or three actresses to play the character since the story spans four decades.[14] He finally metLubna Azabal, a Belgian actress ofMoroccan—Spanish descent[15] inParis, intrigued by her "expressive and eloquent" face inParadise Now (2005).[11] Although she was 30, Villeneuve thought she appeared 18 and could play the part throughout the entire film, using makeup.[14]
Villeneuve selected Canadian actressMélissa Désormeaux-Poulin to play Jeanne, saying the role required listening skills and Désormeaux-Poulin is "a very generous actress".[11] BeforeIncendies, Désormeaux-Poulin was mainly known for "light fare".[16] Montreal actor Allen Altman, who played a notary, worked with a dialect coach for hours to develop a blend of the French and Arab accents before auditioning.[17] While shooting in Jordan, to research his role, actorMaxim Gaudette toured a Palestinian camp nearAmman.[18]
The film was shot inMontreal andJordan.[17] The film took 40 days to shoot, of which 15 were spent in Jordan, with Villeneuve aiming to film no scene without being sure it would not be cut.[3] Principal photography began on 15 March 2009.[19]
For the scenes filmed in Jordan, Villeneuve used a Lebanese and Iraqi crew, though he feared the war scenes would be too reminiscent of bad experiences for them. However, he said the Arab crew members felt "It's important that those sorts of stories are on the screen".[20] Some of the filming in Jordan took place in the capital ofAmman.[1] To recreateBeirut, art directorAndré-Line Beauparlant built up rock and debris on a street in Amman.[18]
Two tracks by British bandRadiohead from their albumAmnesiac, "You and Whose Army?" and "Like Spinning Plates", were used in the film.[21] The music was considered so notable and integral to the film that the music was mentioned in many reviews.[22][23][24][25] Film criticDavid Ehrlich wrote that "Incendies exploits Radiohead tracks for the multiplicity of their meaning, empowering the image by dislocating viewers from it". Villeneuve said that he had written "You and Whose Army?" into the script from the beginning, as it was intended to make it "clear that [the film] will be a westerner's point of view about this world".[26] One music reviewer gave it first place in their "Top Ten Music Moments in Film".[27]
Incendies was officially selected to play in the67th Venice International Film Festival, 2010Telluride Film Festival,2010 Toronto International Film Festival,2011 Sundance Film Festival and 2011New Directors/New Films Festival.[28] The film opened inToronto andVancouver in January 2011.[9]
In the United States, the film was distributed bySony Pictures Classics.[10] When the film was screened inBeirut in March 2011, Villeneuve claimed "a lot of people said to me that we should show this film to their children, to show them what they had been through".[20]
In 2023,Telefilm Canada announced that the film was one of 23 titles that will be digitally restored under its new Canadian Cinema Reignited program to preserve classic Canadian films.[29]
In Canada, the film passed the $1 million mark at the box office by October 2010.[30] By the end of April 2011, the film grossed $4.7 million.[31] In Quebec theatres alone,Incendies made $3 million.[3] It was considered a success in the country.[20]
According toBox Office Mojo, the film completed its theatrical run on 29 September 2011, after making $2,071,334 in the U.S.[32] According toThe Numbers, the film grossed $6,857,096 in North America and $9,181,247 in other territories for a worldwide total of $16,038,343.[4]
Incendies received highly positive reviews from critics.Review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reports 91% positive reviews based on 124 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "It's messy, overlong, and a touch melodramatic, but those flaws pale beforeIncendies' impressive acting and devastating emotional impact."[33] OnMetacritic the film has a weighted average score of 80 out 100 based on 42 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[34]
The film enjoyed a positive reception in its country and province. Kevin N. Laforest of theMontreal Film Journal gave it 3.5 stars out of four and wrote, "Villeneuve has done his best work yet here".[35] TheMontreal Gazette's Brendan Kelly gave the film five stars and called it a "masterwork".[36] Marc Cassivi ofLa Presse claimed the film transcended the play.[37] Peter Howell, writing forThe Toronto Star, gave the film four stars, called it "a commanding film of multiple revelations", and the best of 2010, and praisedLubna Azabal as "first amongst equals".[38] However, Martin Morrow ofCBC News was unimpressed, saying, "Villeneuve's screen adaptation strips away all this finely textured flesh and leaves only the bare bones".[39]University of Berlin film scholar Claudia Kotte wrote that the film, along withMonsieur Lazhar (2011) andWar Witch (2012), represent a break in theCinema of Quebec from focus onlocal history to global concerns, withIncendies addingOedipal themes.[40] Authors Gada Mahrouse, Chantal Maillé and Daniel Salée wrote McCraw and Déry's films,Incendies,Monsieur Lazhar andInch'Allah, depict Quebec as part of theglobal village and as accepting minorities, particularly Middle Easterners or "Muslim Others".[41]
Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars, saying "it wants to be much more than a thriller and succeeds in demonstrating how senseless and futile it is to hate others because of their religion", and Azabal "is never less than compelling".[42] He later selected the film as his favourite to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[43] though it lost toIn a Better World from Denmark.Leonard Maltin also gave the film three and a half stars, referring to it as "tough, spellbinding".[44]Ty Burr, writing forThe Boston Globe, gave the film three and a half stars, praising a bus scene as harrowing but saying the climax is "a plot twist that feels like one coincidence too far", that "leaves the audience doing math on their fingers rather than reeling in shock".[45]Incendies was named by Stephen Holden ofThe New York Times as one of the 10 best films of 2011.[46] Betsy Sharkey of theLos Angeles Times called it Villeneuve's "best-realized work yet".[47] A number of reviews complimented use of the song "You and Whose Army?" byRadiohead.[11][39][48][49] Criticisms have included charges ofmelodrama andorientalism.[50]
On 22 September 2010,Incendies was chosen to represent Canada at the83rd Academy Awards in the category ofBest Foreign Language Film.[51] It made the shortlist on 19 January 2011, one of nine films and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on 25 January 2011.[52][53]
It won eight awards at the31st Genie Awards, includingBest Motion Picture,Best Actress for Azabal andBest Director for Villeneuve.[54] Along withIncendies, Villeneuve won theRogers Best Canadian Film Award in 2009 for the filmPolytechnique, the first Canadian filmmaker to win it twice in a row.[55] Incendies also won thePrix Jutra forBest Film, Director, Screenplay, Actress (Azabal), Editing, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes and Sound.
It is also the only film to date to have won both theToronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film and theVancouver International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film.[56]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 127.[57]
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