Incendies
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve
Written By: Denis Villeneuve, based on a play by Wajdi Mouawad
Starring: Lubna Azbal, Melissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Remy Girad
Directory of Photography: Andre Turpin, Editor: Monique Dartonne, Production Designer: Andre-Line Beauparlant, Original Music: Gregorie Hertzel
Rated: R for language and a lot of graphic violence.
Incendies, a French word that translated to “scorched,” opens with a set of young boys having their heads shaved, beginning training as child soldiers. We’re in an unnamed country, though writer-director Denis Villeneuve makes enough allusions to make it Lebanon, and one of the children stares at us as the camera moves closer to him. It’s an inciting incident for the film, a brutal sting that demands us to not look away at any brutality, and for a film that is an assault in terms of its atrocities, and the film’s questionable intelligence, perfectly sums up its difficult nature.
Incendies already has its defenders—the Canadian film was one of the five nominated for a foreign language Oscar earlier this year—but its overwrought melodrama and lack of true political sensitivity approach laughable proportions. The performers are genuine, and Mr. Villeneuve certainly has good intentions, but the film lacks the subtlety to really question the actions it makes, and its lack of context, an attempt to make the narrative more universal, hinders its chance to make a meaningful statement.
