Review of Incendies (2010) by Mike C — 14 Nov 2011

Though I try to be accepting in liberal with my views, there is just no way around it: I don't like middle eastern culture. Religious zealotry, violence against women and an overall disregard of anything living, awful foods and music, etc. Granted, it's not all like that, but enough of it is and those are the parts I hate. And those are mostly the parts of this movie, a 2010 Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee. If you don't know by now, that's by far the most important category.

Hemingway once said something about fools enjoying epics. This has an epic quality to it, spanning two generations and vast lands, but it's well-done and original, so there is nothing foolish about it. From here on are some spoilers, so if you are going to watch it: stop reading.

Marwan is to have a child out of wedlock and her brothers kill the father and she is nearly killed herself. This is a disturbing scene and I had to make a decision if I wanted to continue with the film. I'm so sick of seeing that shit and have no doubt it happens in life. She is allowed to live and has the child, only to give it up for adoption to an orphanage...but not before giving the baby boy a telling tattoo on the back of his heel.

So the film follows the story of three lives really: Marwan's, and that of her two children. She has died and left them letters in a will. They are to find their brother (they did not know they had a brother) and their father (they assumed he was dead). In the process, we learn that Marwan became an assassin and was imprisoned for 15 years. In prison, she was tortured and raped, eventually resulting in a pregnancy of twins.

The twins are now the grown children putting the story together. Eventually, they track down a man who might have known about the first boy, the brother. As it turns out, brother survived a few things and eventually became a torturer at the prison where is mother was. Did he work alongside her torturer? No, he was that man. And she knew it all along because of the tattoo.

I don't know what to make of it. It's quite a wicked story. The man renames himself with last name Harmony: part of me thinks there is great harmony. Even though it is quite sick, mother was at last with son, and they made beautiful babies. Everything is connected. On the other hand, there is this revenge: telling the torturer that he raped his mother. It's a little far-fetched, or probably a lot, but it's quite a story. Throw in some solid filmmaking and good acting, and no wonder it was an Oscar nom in the most powerful category each year.