Incendies

Denis Villeneuve’s impassioned, decorous adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s award-winning stage play sees a dead woman bequeath her children a mystery, which in turn unlocks the secrets of her past and ultimately theirs. The Oscar-nominated Incendies is an arresting and satisfying fusion of political thriller and family drama. Handsomely shot and mesmerising throughout, it’s a film told most memorably in the sensitive and resonant performances of its lead actresses.

Incendies begins on a desert plain, as Radiohead play unmistakably on the soundtrack (the track "You and Whose Army?"). As the camera pulls back through a window and into a derelict space, we see Middle Eastern militia shaving the heads of heart-wrenchingly young boys who stand cowed, helplessly awaiting their turn. The camera is drawn to one boy in particular, who is marked out by a distinctive three-dot tattoo on one of his heels. He is unlike the others and stares directly and confrontationally at the camera as it closes in on him, fixing us with a steely gaze. Make no mistake - Villeneuve is telling us - this is a film which intends to provoke and challenge.

From the distressing spectacle of its Eastern opening, the location shifts to a meticulously arranged office storeroom in Canada. A man greets two twentysomething visitors who, the blood-red titles inform us, are “The Twins”. The solemn occasion is the reading of the will of Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal, pictured above and below right), and these are her children, Simon (Maxime Gaudette) and Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin). Her will is read by the notary Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard), her former employer.

The difficult, maudlin character of the woman in question becomes apparent at her request to “bury me with no casket, no prayers, naked, face down away from the world”. Even more unusually, the twins are presented with two envelopes: one for their father, whom they thought dead, and another for a brother, of whom they had no prior knowledge. They are informed, dramatically, that when the letters have been delivered “the silence will be broken”. And so the mystery is laid before us.

Simon seems the more emotionally fragile of the two and instantly refuses to play ball; he is seething with resentment at his mother’s duplicity and burned by the memories of her trying nature. Jeanne has a different, more considered response. She is a mathematician working in higher education and approaches it as a problem which needs to be solved. In this she is encouraged by the professor whom she assists, Niv (Dominique Briand), who tells her, “You have to know or your mind will never be at peace.” He gives Jeanne a starting point when he sends her to a friend in the Middle East who teaches in a city called Daresh, where her mother attended university.

Incendies has ample story to unfurl and is best enjoyed with as little knowledge as possible going in (all the above occurs only in the film’s first 15 minutes). As Jeanne investigates, her mother’s past is revealed to us - yet we are positioned ahead of her at every devastating turn. Jeanne’s admirable determination and quest are mirrored by flashbacks of Nawal’s own more treacherous journey. This is a story of mother and daughter and of the physical process of reconnecting with one’s roots. It’s a bold film which takes us down some nightmare alleys but it does so with a quiet dignity and, rather like Nawal herself, it’s furious but impressively contained.

As Nawal, Lubna Azabal makes this difficult character more than digestible, with a searing yet taciturn performance, and Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin is exquisite as her courageous, level-headed offspring. Unfortunately, or unusually at least, the men get edged out and the casting of Jeanne’s sibling Simon is not terrifically successful with the rather uncharismatic Maxime Gaudette floundering in key scenes.

Nevertheless Villeneuve directs with aplomb and it’s a consistent, visually striking film which confidently transcends its stage origins. Villeneuve chooses to set his story in a fictional Middle Eastern country - as was the case with Wajdi Mouawad’s original play - though its inter-faith clashes evoke myriad conflicts. His intention was for the film to be both political and apolitical, to “delve into the subject of anger and not to fuel such anger”. In this admirably moral stance and in its moments of unlikely serenity it recalls Xavier Beauvois’s recent, though more masterful, Of Gods and Men.

Haunting, magisterial and absorbing, Incendies is sure to linger and perhaps even leave a lasting trace. Though it often bristles with righteous indignation and bears all the hallmarks of a traditional thriller - including a suitably flabbergasting conclusion - ultimately it impresses most in its compassion, maturity and sense of forgiveness.

• Incendies is released on Friday

• Find Denis Villeneuve on Amazon

Watch the trailer for Incendies