Incendies

In the Oscar-nominated Incendies, Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve grapples with a range of heavy themes, from personal shame to interfamilial tension to the cyclical nature of war, weaving these threads into a cinematic tapestry that’s equal parts unsettling and hypnotic. Following the instructions of their late mother Nawal’s will, twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan to Lebanon to find a father they thought was dead and a brother they never knew they had. Their search reveals the details of Nawal’s previous life as both a victim and a combatant in the Lebanese civil war, as well as uncomfortable conclusions about the twins’ own origins. Villeneuve alternates between past and present, between Nawal’s trials and her children’s discovery of them, steaming toward a conclusion that’s both horrifying and strangely redemptive. –Matt Semansky