lundi 14 février 2011

The woman who sings


The film I saw today is the best film I have seen so far in 2011. It's a movie nobody talks about in the media over here, although it has been nominated for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category, and, sadly, I think that very few people will see it as not many theatres are showing it in Paris. Yet it's beautiful and unforgettable, both stunning and devastating. I know it will stay with me for a while.

Incendies by Denis Villeneuve is a French Candian film, based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad, that starts in Montreal but mostly takes place in South Lebanon (the country is never named in the film, because it's a timeless drama, nearly mythological, but it's quite obvious we're in Lebanon during the 70's and the 80's from the "refugees camps", the war between" the nationalist Christian militia" and the fedayins...).

Villeneuve provides an original point of view on war (in general, the film isn't a report about the Lebanase civil war) and on motherhood, while reviving Greek tragedy. The shadow of Aeschylus (the Oresteia) and Sophocles does float over this modern drama. The film is also the powerful and poignant portrait of a lady, la femme qui chante.

Everything begins in Canada when twins, Jeanne and Simon Marwan are at the notary office, listening to their late mother's will, a mother who, as hinted, was quite distant. They are given letters by the sollicitor who was also her mother's boss and a family friend, one letter to Jeanne that she's supposed to give to their father, one to Simon which he must give to their brother.

Except that they always believed that their father had died "during the war", and the brother's existence comes as a complete surprise to them!

Simon, still mad at his mother for her failing at the "mother job", is reluctant to accomplish the mission, while Jeanne quickly decides to leave for Middle East. As her journey goes on, she slowly finds out who her mother, Nawal Marwan, really was. While Jeanne travels in that strange land whose language she doesn't speak, looking for clues of her mother's past, we see Nawal's life in flashbacks in the same locations that her daughter visits for the first time. It's Simon who ends the journey with the last finding though.

The cinematography is fantastic without being showy, the editing isn't perfect (especially in the first part of the film)but the mise en scène is great and the cast is excellent. The film was mostly shot in Jordan, and it's a Belgian actress, Lubna Azaba,l who plays Nawal Marwan, delivering a terrific performance. A must see.

PS: Here's a quotation by Wajdi Mouawad, who wrote the play, that sums up why the film is a thing of beauty whereas it's about awful things:

«Le scarabée est un insecte qui se nourrit des excréments d’animaux autrement plus gros que lui. [...] Un artiste est un scarabée qui trouve, dans les excréments mêmes de la société, les aliments nécessaires pour produire les œuvres qui fascinent et bouleversent ses semblables. L’artiste, tel un scarabée, se nourrit de la merde du monde pour lequel il œuvre, et de cette nourriture abjecte il parvient, parfois, à faire jaillir la beauté.»