Incendies

Although Oscar voters are less predictably schmaltzy than they used to be, they still spurn ugly reality when choosing Best Foreign Language Films. In 2011, they chose tediously well-intentioned In a Better World (set in Africa, from Denmark) rather than the French-Canadian entry, Incendies (Scorched).

Denis Villeneuve's direction and adaptation of the play by Lebanese-Canadian Wajdi Mouawad opens out what must have been an histrionic tale of a Middle Eastern woman immigrant in Quebec. Her notarised last wishes ask her grown-up twin children to visit the land of their birth, where they will meet a brother they didn't know about and learn about their unknown father.

The notary, whom the mother had worked for as a secretary, has promised to aid their searches and delivery of the mother's letters. The three travel to an unnamed Middle East country, the daughter first, learning about their mother's life and their homeland's bitter history. Flashbacks illustrate the ordeals that challenged the woman's belief in love, religion and humanity.

An audience doesn't need to know that the mother was a Maronite Christian, her lover a Muslim, and their country (Lebanon) had been devastated by decades of religious conflict, civil war and invasions. The succession of tragedies and horrors are made to feel universal by well-paced direction and editing, with quiet spells showcasing fine cinematography of harsh scrub-land and bombed urban environments (on location in Jordan). Throughout, no musical soundtrack detracts from the attention focused on the excellent cast's faces.

The melodramatic sting in the tale leaves loose psychological strands waving wildly in the viewer's imagination. They may have been topics not enough Oscar voters wanted to contemplate or honour with a top award.