Incendies

I finally got around to seeing Dennis Villeneuve's powerful film adaptation of the play Incendies (2010). It was a mesmerizing film from the opening where some young boys are having their hair cut by soldiers as Radiohead's "You and Whose Army" is played in the background. The film moves back and forth through time to slowly reveal the story of Narwal Marwan (Lubna Azabal). In the present she has died and left letters to her fraternal twin son and daughter asking them to find their father and brother in the Middle Eastern country from which she comes from-it is not specified, but it may be Lebanon. Thus, Villeneuve has created an effective thriller with a shocking conclusion.