"Incendies" - Denis Villeneuve (2011)

I watched "Incendies" a couple of weeks ago and was just torn apart by it.

The film opens this Friday in Kansas City and everybody needs to see it.

This film is devastating and brilliant.

It's the story of a brother and sister who are each given an envelope when their mother dies.

One is a letter to a brother neither of them knew existed and the other is for their father who they both thought was dead.

The story unwraps at a perfect pace as Jeanne and Simon head to the Middle East to solve the mysteries they've been handed.

This is how their mother's story is told and it unfolds with brutality.


Revenge, war, violence and sadism don't just mark the landscape of the region, they marked this woman's life.

The plot has a couple twists, but they aren't just there for the sake of having a twist.

I'm afraid to say much more except see this when it opens this weekend.

"Incendies" wasn't the best film nominated for Best Foreign Language at the Oscars this year. That distinction still goes to "Dogtooth."

But it's pretty damn brilliant.