Beautiful and powerful, this story of grown twins searching for the father and brother they hadn't known existed evoked tears, gasps, and 1½ laughs from the audience tonight. DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU HOW IT ENDS! Don't search google or twitter, and don't reveal it yourself, please. It's not a spoiler to say that much of it takes place in a fictitious Arabic-speaking country (I thought we were supposed to know and felt really dumb when people referred to "the war") and the locations are Montréal, Amman, and another (undisclosed) location in Jordan. Director Denis Villeneuve adapted the screenplay from the stage play of the same name (translation: Scorched) by Wajdi Mouawad. The movie pretty much split the Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars) with Barney's Version and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Wonderful acting by Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette as the twins and Lubna Azabal as their mother, big red chapter headings, and time-specific details make this easier to follow.
Beautiful music by Grégoire Hetzel (some with vocals) is supplemented by two Radiohead songs, You and Whose Army? and Like Spinning Plates. There are a few lines of English but it's mostly in French and Arabic with subtitles. It's long (2:20) and emotional, but worth it! Jack didn't go with me but I spotted several friends sitting nearby.
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