烈火焚天

拍过《囚徒》、《降临》还有《银翼杀手2049》的丹尼斯·维纶瓦纽，已经成功跻身我最喜欢的导演之一。他的电影，氛围出色、叙事一流，但因为缺乏剧烈的爆点，很难成为大路货。这部《焦土之城》一直静静地躺在硬盘里，直到昨天看到有人在夸这部电影，我就从硬盘的深处把它打捞出来。进入电影叙事的氛围是缓慢的，但到最后，字幕出现，合上电脑。还是无法脱离电影的氛围。

作为生活在中东的阿语狗，我想大致梳理一下《焦土之城》的时间线，以及大致的背景。

1949年，一个神奇的年份。主人公纳瓦尔·麦尔旺出生在黎巴嫩南部的山区，一个基督教家庭。这一年，以色列建国，改变了整个中东的政治形态和格局，造成了大量的巴勒斯坦难民，有十万多的难民跑到黎巴嫩南部。

1970年，20岁的纳瓦尔，与难民营中的巴勒斯坦穆斯林男子相爱，她怀着他的骨肉，于是他们决定私奔。不幸的是，私奔败露，纳瓦尔的两个哥哥抓住了他们，当场处决了纳瓦尔的爱人，正要对她进行“荣誉谋杀”的时候，奶奶出现，救了纳瓦尔的命。

荣誉谋杀：是指凶手谋杀家庭成员以达到挽回家族荣誉的目的，受害者几乎都是女性，被杀害的原因主要是“失贞”和“不检点”，常见的情况有被强奸，被怀疑通奸，打扮时髦举止轻浮，拒绝被指定的婚姻，想要离婚等。

1971年，在奶奶的照顾下，纳瓦尔生了一个男婴。奶奶在男婴的右脚脚跟刺了三个点作为标记。随后让接生婆把孩子带到黎巴嫩南部的基督教孤儿院。之后，纳瓦尔也被送到外地，去语言学校学习法语。

四年之后，也就是1975年。宗教冲突加剧，内战一触即发。学校停课，纳瓦尔出于对孩子的挂念，只身闯入危险的南部，去寻找自己的孩子。

在路上，她将纱巾遮在头上，伪装成穆斯林，搭上了一辆全是穆斯林的车。不料中途却遭到基督徒恐怖分子的袭击，最后时刻，她拿出十字架，成功保住性命，但内心已然心如死灰。毕竟她眼睁睁的看着那些挂着圣母图像的基督徒，扫射了全车乘客，并放火烧了全车。

在特蕾莎难民营，她看到的是满目疮痍、生灵涂炭。悲伤绝望的她投靠了穆斯林组织，决心去暗杀基督教国民运动的领袖。

而她的孩子，在孤儿院起名为：尼哈德·梅。在他四岁的时候，所在的基督徒孤儿院被穆斯林武装组织端了，他们把孤儿都训练成穆斯林战士，反过来去杀基督徒。尼哈德·梅后来成为一个出色的狙击手，他的梦想是希望自己的通缉令贴满全国，这样他妈妈或许就可以找到他了。

1975年或者1976年，纳瓦尔成功混入国民运动领袖的家，给他儿子当法语家教。时机成熟时，她遵循组织的安排，枪杀了国民运动的领袖。于是，纳瓦尔被抓紧监狱。

1989年或者1990年，纳瓦尔因为在监狱里持续唱歌，而得到了“唱歌的女人”的绰号。基督徒分子使劲了方法，都不能使她屈服。她就是大名鼎鼎的72号囚犯·唱歌的女人。

一个叫艾布·塔里克的刽子手，为了让纳瓦尔屈服，强暴了她。纳瓦尔在监狱里怀孕了，最后生下来一对双胞胎。狱卒要把双胞胎放到河里自生自灭，但是助产士从狱卒手中接过孩子，代为抚养。

1990年，持续了15年的内战结束，纳瓦尔的牢狱之灾也到头了。穆斯林运动组织的头目找到她，把双胞胎交给她，安排他们三人去了加拿大。

2009年，纳瓦尔和女儿去游泳池，意外的发现了一个右脚上有三颗刺青的男人。她上前去打招呼，没想到居然是...

纳瓦尔崩溃了，她持续一生的沉默即将打破。她在弥留之际留下三封信，一封信给大儿子，一封信给双胞胎的父亲，一封信给双胞胎。她立下遗嘱，让双胞胎把信交给大儿子和他们的父亲之后，才可以看第三封信。也才可以给她立墓碑。

为了揭开母亲过往的历史、为了践行母亲的遗嘱。双胞胎中的女孩儿珍妮踏上了寻根之旅。但她发现，她母亲已经成为整个村庄的丑闻。还发现自己的母亲曾遭受长达15年的牢狱之灾，还被人强暴，不堪忍受真相的她，打电话叫弟弟西蒙过来和他一起面对真相，

真相抽丝剥茧，一点点显露出残酷的全貌...

20岁左右的年纪，母亲纳瓦尔陷入恋爱，怀上了大儿子尼哈德·梅。

20岁左右的年纪，尼哈德·梅成为一个暴力的极端分子。而40岁左右的纳瓦尔在不见天日的监牢里日日歌唱。并在强暴之后，怀上了双胞胎。

20岁左右的年纪，双胞胎长大成人，在西方国家生活，说一口流利的法语，中东的苦难似乎与他们不再有瓜葛。而命运，竟也安排他们40多岁的哥哥尼哈德·梅也来到了加拿大。此时，她们活了一个甲子的母亲，健康情况迅速恶化，并去世了。

在持续15年的黎巴嫩内战中，有大约100万的黎巴嫩人逃到了国外。所以大儿子也逃到加拿大的这剧情，也是合情合理的。

中东，真的是每一块土地都饱含血泪。这是一部太过于痛苦的电影，不想再看第二遍。纳瓦尔的演员选的真好，她真的很能代表中东的女性，中东女性有一种骨子里的坚强，不折不挠的精神。

人类的历史就是一部互相残杀的历史，但爱和和平永远都是最重要的。

Denis Villeneuve, at this stage, can be sufficiently estimated as one of the most distinguished and visionary commercial directors of our era, so let us dive into his two earlier Canadian outputs, which have legitimately put his name on the map.

POLYTECHNIQUE is his third feature, a black-and-white reenactment of the deadly École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, on December 6, 1989, which left 14 women murdered. With its 77-minute length, it is a succinct, intense drama, and unlike Gus van Sant’s ELEPHANT (2003), it sends you shudders right out of the box when gunshots suddenly disrupt the pedestrian school life of École Polytechnique, an engineering school, blood splatter and panic erupts.

After that, the film rewinds back to an earlier time of this fateful day, we get a glimpse of the unnamed killer’s (Gaudette) motive, his targets are female feminists, but Villeneuve and his co-scribe deliberately keep a lid on the details, we don’t know what breeds his hatred, maybe the lowdown is still inconclusive (an incel before the digital age?), ergo, the film’s fulcrum is to deplore the dastardly act itself, regardless of its grounds.

Valérie (Vanasse) is one of the fortunate survivors of the ordeal (does she suffers from the survivor’s guilt?), and before that, she has a first taste of working-place sexism when she is interviewed for an internship, and her classmate Jean-François (Huberdeau) is also on the spot, being the stronger sex, he is spared by the killer with other males, but he seems to be the only one who shows some valor when all hell breaks loose. And after the fact, he is tormented by mounting guilt that he hadn’t done more to prevent the mass killing (a typical messiah complex), whose ramifications are immeasurably grave, varying from individual to individual.

Shot with an absorbing fluidity often with unconventional frames (like the topsy-turvy shot of the hallway), appending a bland positive note to the coda, and grappling with prickly subjects with conviction and tact, POLYTECHNIQUE is a dry run of Villeneuve’s next picture INCENDIES, a bi-continental truth-seeking drama that knocks you dead with a bang!

A modern-day Oedipus tale that beggars belief, INCENDIES is a riddle in two parts. In the wake of the passing of their mother Nawal Marwan (Azabal), an Arabic immigrant in Canada, twins Jeanne and Simon (Désormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette) are requested, upon Nawal’s will, to ferret out their father (whom they think is dead) and brother (whose existence is unbeknown to the twins hitherto) in the Middle East.

The narrative bifurcates and alternates between Nawal’s checkered past in her war-riddled fatherland (an unnamed country, but the events alluding to Lebanese Civil War, and her actions take a leaf from the book of a Lebanese woman Souha Bechara), and decades later, the twins’ journey (Jeanne goes first and Simon will join her later) to their provenance, to discover the inconceivable story of their parentage. As an audience, you are granted an advantage of first-hand information from Nawal’s POV, while the twins slavishly track down breadcrumbs, gather details in dribs and drabs, so the film hooks you by this tack, you are one step ahead in the game, until the riddle is solved, you are in utter shock, like the twins. If you think finding out they are the offspring of a rapist is a major hammer blow, you are too naive!

INCENDIES is everything one needs to show his competence as filmmaker, blaring out Radiohead’s monotonous jeremiad, Villeneuve bestrides the two narrative strands with precision and grit, Nawal’s traumatic experience is steadfastly devised to elicit a vicarious frisson of terror and her “the woman who sings” incarceration marks a heartfelt homage to a woman’s indestructible fortitude. However, the tricky part is the final reveal, and how those characters react to the bombshell, Azabal, who is superlatively good from A to Z, registers Nawal’s quiet implosion in fine fettle, but Désormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette’s philosophical acceptance leaves much to be desired.

Notably, in this Oedipus tale, Oedipus himself is relegated to a marginal place, it is his mother and children’s story to be told, and by doing so, Villeneuve potently denounces the warfare that germinates such unthinkable tragedy, and shows us religion can be a lifesaver, but also the scourge of partisanship. Both INCENDIES and POLYTECHNIQUE are conscience-driven works of art daring to look man-made atrocity straight in the eye, and raring to urge audience to make their own unaffected judgment, although, for me, it would take an oceanic effort to rewatch them, precisely, once is enough, I dare you.

referential entries: Gus van Sant’s ELEPHANT (2003, 8.1/10); Villeneuve’s PRISONER (2013, 8.1/10); Xavier Dolan’s I KILLED MY MOTHER (2009, 7.1/10).

Title: Polytechnique

Year: 2009

Country: Canada

Language: French

Genre: Crime, Drama, History

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Eric Leca, Jacques Davidts

Music: Benoît Charest

Cinematography: Pierre Gill

Editing: Richard Comeau

Cast:

Karine Vanasse

Maxim Gaudette

Sébastien Huberdeau

Evelyne Brochu

Pierre Leblanc

Johanne-Marie Tremblay

Pierre-Yves Cardinal

Rating: 7.3/10

Title: Incendies

Year: 2010

Country: Canada, France

Language: French, Arabic, English

Genre: Drama, Mystery, War

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne

based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad

Music: Grégoire Hetzel

Cinematography: André Turpin

Editing: Monique Dartonne

Cast:

Lubna Azabal

Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin

Maxim Gaudette

Rémy Girard

Abdelghafour Elaaziz

Allen Altman

Baya Belal

Dominique Briand

Majida Hussein

Nabil Koni

Rand Faris

Nabil Sawalha

Baraka Rahmani

Mohamed Majd

Rating: 7.9/10