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Incendies | 2011 | R | - 3.8.5
After the death of their mother, twin siblings (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette) go to the Middle East in search of their mother's tangled past and to find their family. Also with Lubna Azabal and Allen Altman. Directed by Denis Villeneuve. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. [2:10]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - We see a woman struggling to pull up her pants (no nudity is visible) and it is implied that she had been raped. A man tells a woman that her mother had been raped repeatedly (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details) and had become pregnant from the assault.
► A pre-teen boy is seen shirtless and his bare chest is visible. Boys are seen shirtless, and their bare chests are visible. A woman wears a one-piece swimsuit in a pool and we also see men's bare chests when they wear swimming trunks and Speedo-style swimsuits; women are seen in the background wearing bikinis. The bare torso of a woman is seen as she lifts her shirt to expose her pregnant abdomen.
► A man reads a woman's will to another man and a woman (her children), stating that she wants to be buried nude.
► A woman sorts through a drawer of undergarments and we see her lifting up a handful of brassieres. A man and a woman hug and the man wraps his arms around the woman as they briskly walk away.
VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - A man fires a machine gun into a bus filled with people, we hear screams as people duck, windows shatter, and we see six dead bodies, with blood spattered on a child and a woman, and the limp arm of a dead man is draped over a woman's shoulder; we see blood coming from a man's forehead, blood on an abrasion on a dead man's shoulder and blood covering some of the seats of the bus.
► A man climbs on top of a bus filled with dead bodies, as well as two women and a young child, he pours gasoline on the bus, and one of the women escapes with the young child and moments later men open fire on the bus and we see it go up in flames; a young girl runs toward the bus, we hear a gunshot and it is implied that the young girl is shot (we do not see her body) while the surviving woman is seen sitting by the burning bus and a dead body is seen lying on the ground next to the bus.
► A man shoots a man in the head, at point-blank range, we see blood spray from the back of the man's head and a woman screams and kneels beside him; the man points the gun at the back of the woman's head and an older woman's shouting interrupts them.
► A man fires a rifle at three boys and a pre-teen boy: we see blood on the pre-teen boy's face from the spray of blood from one of the boys, and blood is seen on the deceased boy's face and surrounding his head. A woman fires two shots at several men, and we do not see them fall but moments later we see the woman being dragged away by armed guards and shoved into the trunk of a car at gunpoint; we later learn that the woman had killed one of the men.
► A woman is led into a prison cell with a hood over her head, she is seen sitting in the middle of the room on a chair as a man circles her, and we then see her struggling to pull up her pants, with her hands still bound, implying that she had been raped. A woman is lead into a prison cell with a hood over her head, and we hear distant screams as it is presumed the woman is being attacked. A woman slaps away the hands of a man as he attempts to reach into her prison cell.
► Tanks drive down a street while men and women chase them, a woman runs after the tanks and we later hear a radio report about the area being attacked by military members and tanks shutting down a college. A woman passes through a military checkpoint, and we see soldiers holding large assault rifles and hear people shouting as they are corralled into a line behind barbed wire. We see three boys and a pre-teen boy running through rubble of bombed buildings and they take cover when gunshots are fired.
► We see the bloody, cut feet of a woman in a prison cell. We see blood on sheets surrounding a woman, and also on her legs, on her chest and a newborn baby she is holding after giving birth; another woman uses a pair of scissors to snip through the umbilical cord. A woman screams in pain as she gives birth, and we see the bloody head of the baby, and a woman's hand covered in blood touching the woman's leg, assisting her. A woman uses a pin to prick the bottom of a newborn baby's foot, it draws a small amount of blood and the woman rubs ink into the three small wounds; we see dried blood on the woman's hands.
► We see a stream and hear a woman explaining to a man that she will take care of children rather than allowing him to drown them.
► A man tells a woman that her mother had been imprisoned for killing a militant leader, and saying that they "made her pay" for her crime in a prison for fifteen years, including being tortured by a man who repeatedly raped her.
► An older woman shoves a woman onto a bed, she shakes her shoulders and shouts at her, the older woman shouts that she will have to kill the woman, and the woman weeps until the older woman comforts her. We hear the screams of a woman from within a house; she is presumably mourning and not being injured, but it is unclear.
► A man tells a woman that a group of people had attacked and killed another group of people as revenge for bombing an orphanage. A woman tells another woman that militants had attacked an orphanage. A man tells two men and a woman that an orphanage had been attacked and that the children might be dead. A woman reads aloud a news story about a group of militants killing people living on the border of a country. A young woman shouts at a boy and the boy runs away. Several women shout at one another. On multiple occasions a woman shouts at her brother. A man tells several women that militants had attacked a village and that they will have to leave for their own safety. An older man talks about having attacked an orphanage and that he kidnapped several boys to train them as fighters. A man shouts at his sister about feeling guilty for witnessing an accident that presumably led to their mother's death. A man tells a woman that a prison had been condemned by Amnesty International and that some of the women had been held prisoner for more than fifteen years. An elderly man explains that a man had killed several men, and he was captured and imprisoned rather than killed, and now serves as the prison's executioner. A woman tells a man that her father had died during a war. A man tells another man that he had the will of a man who had killed several people. A man reads from a will that states that childhood is like a knife in the throat. A woman discovers a refugee camp, and we hear a voiceover from a woman saying that she looked for her son in a "wave of blood" while we see images of bombed buildings, papers and overturned furniture inside the building. A doctor asks a man and a woman for health details of a woman who appears catatonic.
► A man walks through a hospital, people are see lying on gurneys in the hallway, and a woman is seen lying on a gurney, alive but dazed and unresponsive.
► A woman discovers the burnt-out remains of a series of buildings that appear to have been bombed. A woman examines photo stills of riots, police officers lining a street and what appears to be a smoke bomb filling the air of one of the photographs.
LANGUAGE 5 - About 3 F-words, 2 sexual references, 1 scatological term, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (crazy, traitor, dog, son of refugees, mad), exclamations (shut up, shut your mouth), 3 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - Two men are seen smoking cigarettes.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Disappointment, death of a parent, fulfilling promises, hidden past, discovering a person's history, torture, rape, victims of genocide, crimes of war, hate crimes, revenge, acceptance.
MESSAGE - Discovering where a person came from can be very painful and difficult in terms of war and overcoming the past.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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