Incendies(2010)

Submitted by Emmy

The twins’ father (and their mother’s torturer in prison, Abou Tarek), turns out to be the child she gave up as a teenager, making him both their father AND their brother. We flashback to when she went silent and the pool, and it’s revealed that he was there as well, and did not recognize her. The twins, although devastated, find Abou Tarek/Nihad of May, where he currently lives in Canada (cleaning public buses), and deliver both the letters to him, leaving before he reads them. The “letter to the father” is a scathing disparagement, saying that “Our children will deliever this letter, but you will not recognize them, for they are beautiful.”, signed “Whore #72” (Nawal’s prisoner number). The “letter to the son” forgives him, and declares that, despite everything, she is his mother, and still loves him as much as she did when he was born. Nihad is visibly shaken after reading these.

The twins return to Jean, who informs them that since they have fulfilled their mother’s wishes, she has a final letter for them. This letter asks them to break the cycle of anger, and not to dwell on the horror of their conception and birth, and says that since she has gotten closure, they may bury her with a headstone, since she no longer needs to hide from the world.

The movie ends with a shot of Nawal Matwan’s marble headstone, with her birth and death dates on it. As the camera pulls back, an indistinct male figure walks up to the stone to stand before it.