Incendies: An Outsider’s View of Civil War and its Consequences

Denis Villeneuve

Cities of Connection & Disconnections: Discussion Questions

1. How is city (or urbanism according to Luis Wirth) re-defined by flows? In other words, how are the key features of a city defined by this chapter related to Wirth’s urbanism as a way of life?

2. G 2 How is this chapter connected to Incendies? Where is the “point/place” of connection & disconnection? Can you find examples to support and illustrate the chapters concepts (gated community & its connections with its surroudings, city vanishing or multiple time-space, call centers, multiple networks of relations, etc.

Incendies: Discussion Questions1. G 7 Major motifs: broken promise and forsaken children– How does the

story of broken families/promises develop, reach its climax and then resolved, using the motifs of broken promise and forsaken children?

2. G 6 Incest: Do you find the theme in this film “incest” overly sentimental? The Group’s question: Do you agree that “sometimes it’s better not to know”? (Compare Simon’s and Jeanne’s responses)

3. G 5 History: How is history discovered through the use of ”documents” (photograph, passport) and sites (university, prison, village, hotel, refugee camp and swimming pool)

4. G3 What roles do the professionals play in this film? E.g. the mathematicians and notaries (Mr. Lebel & Mr. Maddad) play?

5. G 4 Filmic Connection & Disconnection: What do you think about the film’s opening, closing scenes, and the bird-eye’s view in the film? And the use of cell phone as a device for communication? And the use of music?

6. G 1 Cities & Religions: How is Montreal presented? How is it opposed to the fictional place in Middle East (Daresh, Deressa)? How are religions and “ideoscapes” presented in this film? Are there villains in this film? How about Chamseddine?

NY BeirutMontreal

110901 (2002) Bubble (2006) Incendies (2010)

Religion as Ethnicity

Main characters

Nawal

Wahab

Nawal’s brother

Nihad

Jeanne

SimonNotary

Shooting

Lover

rape

Delivering the will, letters, Photograph & passport

Christian ArabPalestinian refugee

Denis Villeneuve1994 REW-FFWD (short; set in Jamaica)

1996 "Le Technétium“ Cosmos

1998 Un 32 août sur terre

2000 Maelström

2008 Next Floor

2009 Polytechnique

2010 Incendies

2013 Prisoners

2013 Enemy

Plot (1)The Twins Newal Daresh

Past (1)The child (3) Nawal + Wahab, killed + Nawal gives birth to a baby, leaves the village

(5) Nawal, a student working for a newspaper sympathetic with the refugees

present

(1)Mother ill, The will

(4) Jeanne goes to the univ.

Transitions: 1. 00:12:55 00:14:36

Jeanne’s recollection

Transitions: Journeys (1) university

Transitions: Archival Photos•

Plot (2)The South Deressa (the camp) The Woman who

singsPast When the war

breaks out, she goes back to look for her son w/out success; almost get killed on the road

(7) Nawal goes back to Daresh, joins anti-Christian/Nationalist group; killed the Christian group’s leader, finally put in jail

Nawal in prison

pres

ent

(6) Jeanne goes to the village, gets rejected by the village women

(8) Jeanne goes to the prison of Kfar Ryat, talks to one jail keeperCalls Simon

(9) Simon and Libel go to Daresh

Transitions: Journeys to the South(2)

Transitions: Journeys (2)

3. Transition: Prison Scenes

3. 1:25: the babies rescued tunnel

Plot (3)

Sarwan Janaan Nihad of May Chamseddine

Past The birth of the

twinsNihad a skillful sniper

Mother in the swimming pool

present

Simon’s arrival;The twins see the nurse, to realize that they were the results of rape

Simon goes to the warlord

Final revelation

Transitions: Simon’s Involvement

• 1:16 [radiohead music] 1:20 (Simon’s & the notary’s roles) the rape scene in the prison

• 1:25: the babies rescued tunnel

Transitions: Visiting the Warlord

Final Transition: Final Revelation

Final Transition: Final Revelation

Images of Children

openingvs. ending

Outsider’s View: Opening

Outsider’s View: Long Shots

Outsider’s View: Aerial Views

By comparison: Montreal is bleak…

•

Ideoscape and its rigidity

Ideoscape and its fluidity

Ideoscape and its floating signs

Promise: Lebel vs. Simon

Before going to Daresh

• - We'll get her, and then come back.

• - Promised. A promise, Mr. Marwan, is sacred for a notary.

Upon knowing the brother’s identity (1:39)

• - They (Abu Tarek & Nihad)are both dead. We open the envelopes, then that's it.

• - That I will not, Simon. This kind of thing is sacred.

• (Mr. Maddad): This commit rape.

• - Luckily, that runs in the family.

The Notaries: Libel & Mr. Maddad

- You really know the woman who sings?You do not know what it means to me.

Mathmatics

Jeanne’s teacher --Welcome to pure mathematics, the land of loneliness.The prof at Daresh: confused about times History -- that this period is a series of reprisals (instance of retaliation/revenge) which fit one another in an inexorable logic, as additions.

- One plus one makes two.It can not make one.

Chamseddine: Different Versions

• 00:45 Chamseddine and his men killed all the Christians to avenge the refugees. The children are perhaps at Deressa.

• 1:52 There was an orphanage• in Kfar Kout. I saved the children. I took them

with us. … Nihad…he had a gift. But he wanted to find her mother. … he

• wanted to be a martyr so that his mother should see her picture everywhere on the walls of the country.

Chamseddine• 1:48 Children will help you, you'll see.• - You can not ask me.• - Your children are our children, Nawal. Your

family is our family.

Landscape

Destroyed

Console yourself because nothingis more beautiful than being together.

Main Concepts (2): Global Flows (Arjun Appadurai)

Ideoscape

Christian vs. Muslim

Mediascape

Music

Technoscape Ethnoscape

Migrants

In a Quest (like Ko)

Immigrants Exile

Financescape

Urban Landscape

as Palimpsest

Place/Space/

Landscape

When Yesterday Comes

Super Citizen Ko

Urbanism as a Way of

Life

Anomie

EnemyWhat

Time is it there?

Time-Space Compression

Mediated Communi

cation

Love Go go

Global Flows

Flaneurism

Cabbie,Amelie

Taipei 4-Way

Globalization of

Strangeness

Other

God-Man-Dog

Course: Main Concepts (3): Next Week

Course: Main Themes

• urbanism as a way of life, • history and oblivion, • urban migrant and family, • flâneurism, • global capital flows and simulation• Family, immigrants and strangers in

global flows

Recurrent Motifs in our Course

Presentations of City•Cityscape, its history, “character” (image), nodes, areas, streets and landmarks•City vs. “Country”Flows (1): Communication vs. Fragmentation•1. letter writing and delivery •2. usages of cell phone Flows (2): Cultural Globalization•Images, Commodities and Simulacra•Use of Music Flows (3): Migration: Internal and External Flows (4): War, Love and “Family” & Flows of Desire