Incendies

The next film on my list of Oscar Foreign Language Film nominees is this French/Canadian production set in the Middle East.

The premise of a family reading a will is always an interesting one. Invariable there will be a problem where a family member will find something out about the deceased they did not know. In this case a pair of twins are given letters that they must deliver to their father that they thought was dead and a brother they never knew existed. Only one of the pair the daughter Jeanne is willing to take this emotional journey. And an incredibly emotional journey it is. This is by far and away one of the best films I've seen this year. The plot is like a clever detective story when Jeanne uncovers a life she never knew her mother had. The story is told in as two parallel journeys with us seeing the mother's journey as the daughter discover each event. This can get a little confusing as the actress playing the daughter and the one playing the younger version of the mother look a lot a like and you have to concentrate to make sure you know which time period you are in. The mother, Nawal, goes through many harrowing experiences which can be quite hard to handle especially at the end.

All the actors in the film are brilliant. Lubna Azabal is amazing as the younger version of Nawal. Her character has an incredibly emotional journey as I said and she handles it so well. As Jeanne Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin is equally as good. Finding out about the horrible things your mother went through can be difficult. Maxim Gaudette is fine in his small role as Simon but his character is very arrogant.

I can see that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a hard time choosing which of the five films nominated deserved the award. 'Incendies' I think is the best so far.