BIG SCREEN: Incendies Revieux

Have you ever tried to write with your opposite hand – just to see if you could do it? Turns out, it’s not only a challenging exercise, but it actually stimulates the growth of new brain cells. I have a theory that watching foreign films does the same thing. I bring this up because I recently saw my first foreign film in about eight years. Believe it or not, there was one year, back in my full-time movie reviewing days in the late 90s, when I saw every single Oscar-nominated film, including short form and foreign. Then I got married and had a baby, and I was lucky if I got to see anything that didn’t start off with a shot of Cinderella’s castle.

So, how fortuitous that my first foray back into the genre was with such a good and highly decorated film. Incendies is a French-Canadian film about two generations deeply affected by the Lebanese Civil War of the 1970s and 80s. Upon a Lebanese woman’s death in Quebec, her adult children find out the strange contents of their mother’s will, and the even more bizarre and cryptic letters of instruction she’s left behind. To understand it all, they have to return to their mother’s homeland and discover the brutal truth behind her true identity. It’s a rather epic odyssey that switches back and forth from the daughter’s modern-day search, to her mother’s horrific experience decades earlier.

In the first few minutes of the film, I was really wishing I’d done a little research on the political and religious backdrop. Who was who and why they were being persecuted, and by whom? It was a little confusing to my feeble brain. But as the story progressed, all the necessary pieces began to fall into place.

I hate that my twisted mind jumped ahead and figured out the disturbing twist to the story (I’m still undecided if this is my gift or curse), but I was still dying to see how it unfolded. And it didn’t disappoint. Just so we’re clear, I’m certainly no high-minded intellectual who frequents foreign films, then sits around chain smoking and sucking down espresso in coffeehouses while engaging in a heated discussion with other sophisticates. So, when a subtitled movie grabs my attention and keeps me riveted, I know they’ve done something right that transcends the language barrier. The story is both beautiful and horrifying, and the performances are really powerful.

I know, I know. Foreign films aren’t for everybody. But it is cool to see how the longer you watch the movie, the more your brain is able to simultaneously process the subtitles, images and even the nuances of the actors’ performances – and, voila! You’re a little smarter. Or so I’d like to think.