Incendies - an unlikely history lesson

It's Friday afternoon, work is dull, therefore a film review!

I learned a lot about Lebanese history and politics the other day when I watched Incendies, a film that's mainly in French and set in Canada and Lebanon across two different time frames.  This is the story of Jeanne and Simon, a Canadian brother and sister whose mother Narwal has recently died.  In order to fulfil their mother's last wishes, they travel to Lebanon where their mother was born to search for their mysterious brother, a man about whom their mother talks in her will, but who she never mentioned when she was alive.  As they travel through Lebanon searching for lost records, the film cuts back to the Lebanese civil war, in which their mother was initially a peaceful objector, but then after witnessing several acts of carnage becomes a willing participant.

This is an extremely well acted film that tells a compelling story about the tragedy that befell the Lebanese people.  If nothing else, it serves to highlight a portion of history that I feel has been largely forgotten in the west 25 years on from the ceasefire and amnesty agreements.  The film's depiction of brutal acts of terror against ordinary people is realistic and horrifying.  These acts were largely performed by ordinary people against their neighbours, friends and family members, and often simply because you were wearing the wrong sort of religious symbol around your neck.  It reminds us all that nationalism and the politics of division can very quickly result in one or other group becoming dehumanised in the eyes of wider society.  It's something that in the modern age of austerity we need to be vigilant against more than ever.

Incendies does have a major flaw though, which is that it contains something of a plot twist that felt a bit unnecessary.  As if the horrors of war weren't enough for the viewer, there's a twist to events that I think are meant to make things more horrible still.  Though in the end the reaction of Jeanne and Simon to their discovery gives hope, perhaps saying that forgiveness is possible, and that the passage of time can heal even the deepest wounds.

Though it's a very unbelievable story, it highlights the dehumanising nature of war and warns against religious intolerance, and from a cinematic and acting point of view the film is outstanding.  Definitely one to check out.