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Apr 27, 2011 · Most people do not choose their religions but have them forced upon themselves by birth, and the lesson of “Incendies” is that an accident of birth is not a reason for hatred. The heroine who comes to this conclusion is the author of the two letters, Nawal (Lubna Azabal), the twins’ mother.
May 24, 2024 · Following their mother Nawal's immigration to Canada, the scene picks up years later with Nawal going for a swim in a crowded public pool. Floating along, Jeanne and Simon's mother stops for a rest at the edge of the pool only to find a man standing close by with a small tattoo on his ankle.
- Klein Felt
- Senior Editor
Incendies is an incredible film, and arguably Villeneuve's masterpiece. It all feels so authentic, and so perfectly (and interestingly) structured as a puzzle-mystery that still delivers layer upon layer of emotional punch and themes. But I find the ending really misjudged on two counts: a) Its so hard to accept in terms of probability.
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- Notes and References
Following the death of their mother Nawal, an Arab immigrant in Canada, Jeanne and her twin brother Simon meet with French 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, whose...
Development
Parts of the story were based on the life of Souha Bechara. The story is based on events that happened during the Lebanese Civil Warof 1975 to 1990, but the filmmakers attempted to make the location of the plot ambiguous. Director Denis Villeneuve first saw Wajdi Mouawad's play Incendies at Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal in 2004, commenting "I had this strong intuition that I was in front of a masterpiece". Villeneuve acknowledged unfamiliarity with Arab culture, but was drawn to Incendies...
Casting
For the part of Nawal, Villeneuve said he conducted an extensive search for actresses across Canada. 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. He finally met Lubna Azabal, a Belgian actress of Moroccan—Spanish descent in Paris, intrigued by her "expressive and eloquent" face in Paradise Now (2005).Although she was 30, Villeneuve thought she appeared 1...
Filming
The film was shot in Montreal and Jordan.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. 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". Some of the filming in Jordan took place...
Incendies was officially selected to play in the 2010 Venice Film Festival, 2010 Telluride Film Festival, 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, 2011 Sundance Film Festival and 2011 New Directors/New Films Festival. The film opened in Toronto and Vancouverin January 2011. In the United States, the film was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. ...
Box office
In Canada, the film passed the $1 million mark at the box office by October 2010. By the end of April 2011, the film grossed $4.7 million. In Quebec theatres alone, Incendies made $3 million.It was considered a success in the country. According to Box Office Mojo, the film completed its theatrical run on 29 September 2011, after making $2,071,334 in the U.S. According to The Numbers, the film grossed $6,857,096 in North America and $9,181,247 in other territories for a worldwide total of $16,...
Critical response
Incendies received highly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten 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 before Incendies impressive acting and devastating emotional impact." On Metacriticthe film has a weighted average score of 80 out 100 based on 42 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film...
Accolades
On 22 September 2010, Incendies was chosen to represent Canada at the 83rd Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.It made the shortlist on 19 January 2011, one of nine films and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on 25 January 2011. It won eight awards at the 31st Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Actress for Azabal and Best Director for Villeneuve. Along with Incendies, Villeneuve won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award in...
List of Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmNews: Les coulisses d'Incendies : plonger dans le décor . Chabot . Simon . 27 June 2009 . 7 August 2016 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20161006205924/http://www.lapresse.ca/cinema/cinema-quebecois...Web site: Incendies . 22 October 2018 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20180717173200/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/incendies-video . 17 July 2018 . live .News: 1 March 2011 . Quebecers all benefit when we can tell our own stories . .Web site: Incendies (2010) . 6 August 2016 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20160820015924/http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Incendies#tab=box-office . 20 August 2016 . live .Apr 22, 2011 · Incendies is a detective story, a tantalizing puzzle movie. It's set in Quebec and in an unnamed Middle Eastern country that is pretty clearly Lebanon.
Incendies walks a tightrope between a mythic meditation on the devastating consequences of war and a grounded realism of everyday suffering. Put another way, it’s midway between tragedy and melodrama.
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Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad 's play of the same name, Incendies stars Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Rémy Girard. The story concerns Canadian twins who travel to their mother's native country in the Levant to uncover her hidden past amidst a bloody civil war.
