millsdavid

Incendies

“You’re looking for your father, but you don’t even know who your mother is.”

Incendies was a tough film to watch, but it was definitely worth it. The film begins with the reading of a mother’s will in Québec, in which she asks her son and daughter to deliver letters to their father (who they believed was dead) and their brother (who they didn’t know existed). To fulfil her wishes they travel back to their mother’s homeland in the middle-east, where they discover their mother’s story and where they came from.

As the mother’s story in this film is set in war there’s a lot of brutality, physical and emotional - horrifying scenes. I was moved by the thought of a woman protecting her children from their history for their entire lives. They had no idea of what she went through, her son thought she was crazy or absent. Discovering who they are is a tough burden.

It’s currently on in Manuka and I recommend seeing it while it’s on.