Genre: Drama
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Stars: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette
****
Director Denis Villeneuve says Incendies refers to an inferno that leaves “something totally destroyed, totally transformed … destruction that you cannot change afterwards.”
The metaphor well suits his film’s emotional intensity. My pick for the best of 2010 and also Oscar contender for Best Foreign Language Film, Incendies is a detective story, thriller and family drama in one.
It’s set in Canada and the Middle East, and freely adapted from Lebanese-born Quebec playwright Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed stage work of the same name. Incendies is a commanding film of multiple revelations, locations and decades that ultimately becomes a work of transcendent reconciliation.
