Family secrets in 'Incendies'

Those well-versed in modern Middle East history may find that "Incendies," for all its political complexity, is really just an old-fashioned mystery. For the rest of us, who can barely tell a phalangist from a jihadi, that's good news. The familiar conventions of the genre -- twists, turns, a perhaps too-neat ending -- provide solid footing during this harrowing trip through a vertiginous region.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and based on Wajdi Mouawad's stage play, "Incendies" begins in Canada and is driven by a simple premise: Upon the death of Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal), her grown twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) receive instructions to find the brother and father they never knew. Their only clue: an old photograph of Nawal with faded Arabic script in the background.

Simon refuses to play along, leaving Jeanne to take the initiative. Visiting her mother's birthplace, she receives hot tea but an otherwise chilly reception; at a notorious prison she discovers that Nawal is a local legend. Jeanne loosens the lid on this can of worms, but it is Simon who must finally open it.

Nominated for a foreign language Oscar, "Incendies" is filled with terrific performances, particularly that of Azabal as the ferociously proud but ultimately defeated Nawal. And its head-spinning images -- an Arab woman brandishing a crucifix, machine-guns bearing portraits of the Virgin Mary -- drive home the political, personal and seemingly impossible chaos of the Middle East.