Incendies

"Death is never the end of the story. It always leaves tracks."

—Notary Jean Lebel

Incendies (meaning "Fires") is a 2010 Canadian mystery-drama film written and directed by Denis Villeneuve, adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play of the same name. In 2011, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

After Nawal Marwan's death, fraternal twins Jeanne and Simon, her two children, at the demand of their mother's will, go to the Middle East to search for and give two letters to their brother and their father. During their quest, they find out about Nawal's past (revealed through flashbacks), in the middle of a civil war.

Tropes used in Incendies include:

The Call Left a Message: The Tagline makes it very apparent: "The search began at the opening of their mother's will."
Catatonia: While at a public swimming pool, Nawal is rendered catatonic, Thousand-Yard Stare included. Jeanne cannot snap her off the state. The reason for that is not revealed until much later. At that moment, Nawal just saw her son/rapist and her children's brother/father (she recognized his tattoo).
Child by Rape: Jeanne and Simon were born as a result of Nawal being repeatedly raped by torturer Abou Tareq while imprisoned in Kfar Rya.
Child Soldiers: Nawal's son was rescued and converted by Muslim warlord Chamseddine to fight for him.
Fictional Country / Qurac: Nawal came from an unnamed Middle Eastern country.
Genius Bonus:
- Jeanne, a mathematician, invokes the Syracuse problem (the conjecture being that no matter what value of n, the sequence will always reach 1) in one of her classes.
- Later, in The Reveal, Simon alludes to the conjecture ("One plus one, does it make one?") to Jeanne when revealing the link between their brother and their father.
Honor-Related Abuse: Nawal's parents (who are Christian Arab) planned to kill her, after they killed her Palestinian lover, but her grandmother spares her.
Posthumous Character: Nawal dies early in the story.
Professional Killer: At one point in Nawal's past, she joined Muslim fighters and shot a nationalist leader. She was imprisoned for 15 years in Kfar Ryat prison for this.
Shout-Out: Simon name-drops Nostalghia by Andrei Tarkovsky when he says "One plus one, does it make one?"
The Reveal: Chamseddine reveals to Simon that Nihad, who previously was Chamsddine's child soldier, was captured by the nationalists, joined their army, and took the name Abou Tareq, therefore highlighting the fact that Jeanne and Simon's half-brother is also their father.
Tattooed Crook: Nihad was tattooed by his grandmother when he was a baby.
Torture Cellar: Kfar Ryat prison is a glorified version of this.
Torture Technician: Nihad/Abou Tareq became one inside Kfar Ryat prison.
The Trope Without a Title: During her imprisonment in Kfar Ryat prison, Nawal became known as "The Woman Who Sings" because she refused to submit to her captors and because she whistled to distract herself from terrible screams inside the prison.