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Incendies (2010)

 


Incendies (2010) is a French movie directed by Denis Villeneuve. The opening scene of the film is by far the most unnerving I have ever watched. It begins with a wide-angle shot of a large landscape and gradually zooms in on the inside of a shattered building. Inside, there were a few children whose hair was being trimmed by some adults. As one of the kids’ hair was being cut, the camera focused on him. And that kid gives a cold stare down, looking right at us through the camera. That stare was so unnerving for me as it was trying to say a lot of things. That stare was filled with sadness, helplessness, and pure anger. The stare was so diabolical that it looked straight at my soul and said, “You take your life for granted, and I am angry at you for that.”

This 3-minute opening of Incendies is a movie of its own. A kid with lots of questions and confusion on what is happening, a kid who was born in a world filled with hatred and horror. And the anger that he feels is something that never deflates to any sort of peaceful resolution. The wound he carries will always refuse to heal, which only fuels his anger and causes him to grow as the most feared adult. No human being is born a criminal or an evil person. The life they live, molded by hatred, will forge him to be the one the world will fear and despise.

The most haunting thing about wars is not death; it is not the uprooting of trees; it is not just the displacements of millions from their home. The most haunting thing about war is what it does to the children. Being born in a world full of anger and horror will teach them only those things. They sprout like wild vines only to spread more violence. As they grow up, the anger towards the world will make more sense to them than any love that they never received. Like a never-ending vicious circle, they come, following the threads of hatred left by those before them.


***

 

“You watch my story through this monitor, with snacks to please your taste buds, with a blanket to cover your feet.

I am jealous of you; I am angry at you; I want my Ummah and Abba to take me from here; I hate it here; I hate you.

Who is a Muslim? Who is a Christian? Who is a Jew? What is Israel? What is Palestine? Who is Jesus? Who is Muhammad? Where is Ummah? Where is Abba?

Why am I to be killed? Or why am I the one who kills?

You may sympathize with me and my story, and you may lose a night’s sleep thinking about me. You may curse the world for making me what I am now; you will pretend to be angry at the world for me. But then you will move on the next morning; you will be worried about yourself, and I will have to continue living this same life forever.

I don’t want your sympathy; your sympathy fuels my anger. Your sympathy is a mockery of my world.

I prefer to watch this world burn to ashes along with me than to redeem myself to live in it peacefully, like you.”


***

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