Incendies opens with a scene where a notary named Jean Lebel (Remy Girard) reads the will of his client, Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal), to her two children, Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette) and Jeanne Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin). The contents of the will are so peculiar that the notary initially hesitated to comply with his client’s request. Nawal asked to be buried naked and face down in the ground. Additionally, she requested that her grave remain unmarked until Simon and Jeanne fulfilled her final wishes. Each sibling was given an envelope that had to be delivered to different people.
Jeanne was instructed to deliver her envelope to their father, while Simon was tasked with giving his envelope to a sibling they had just learned existed. If these tasks were completed, they would receive another envelope containing further instructions. This revelation left Simon and Jeanne shocked and confused since they believed they had no siblings and that their father had died in the war in Daresh, a fictional city in Lebanon. As a first clue, Jeanne was given an old passport belonging to her mother. She discussed the will with her professor, who advised her to trust her intuition and travel to Daresh.
Her professor also suggested Jeanne meet a friend there for assistance. Jeanne traveled alone from Canada to Lebanon, with Simon planning to follow if she provided updates. The film then cuts to a few days before their mother’s death, showing a moment when Nawal and Jeanne visited a public swimming pool. While initially acting normal, Nawal suddenly became withdrawn, as if something deeply disturbed her. After this incident, her health declined rapidly, and she was hospitalized before passing away shortly after admission.
The film flashes back to Nawal’s teenage years, showing her attempt to flee with a man named Wahab. Their escape was thwarted by Nawal’s brother, who immediately shot Wahab dead. Furious upon learning that Nawal had committed adultery and was pregnant with Wahab’s child, Nawal’s grandmother intervened. Despite her anger, the grandmother accepted the situation and took care of Nawal during her pregnancy. However, she made it clear that she would only care for her until she gave birth. Afterward, Nawal was sent away to live with her uncle in another village to continue her education.
Nawal gave birth to a baby boy, and her grandmother marked the child with a tattoo of three dots on the back of his foot so Nawal could identify him later. The baby was immediately taken to an orphanage. The next day, Nawal left for her uncle’s house in the city to continue her schooling. The scene shifts to the present, where Jeanne arrives in Daresh and meets someone her professor had recommended. This person informs Jeanne that Nawal had indeed been in Daresh long ago but had changed her identity after leaving the area.
From the photo Jeanne shared with her professor’s friend, it was revealed that her mother, Nawal, had once been imprisoned in a facility called Kfar Ryat. The story then shifts back to Nawal’s youth, during a time when unrest broke out in the village where she lived with her uncle. Decades ago, Lebanon was torn by a civil war involving Muslims, Christians, and other religious factions. Nawal attempted to flee to the orphanage where her son had been sent by her grandmother. Tragically, the orphanage had been attacked by Muslim forces, and it was reported that all the residents were killed. This fueled Nawal’s deep resentment toward the warring factions.
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Nawal later became a private tutor for a child from a prominent family, with the hidden intention of exacting revenge. After one of her teaching sessions, she approached the child’s parents and shot the father dead. Nawal believed that the man she had killed was the mastermind behind the unrest in Lebanon. She was arrested following the murder and imprisoned in Kfar Ryat. In the present, Jeanne visits the now-defunct prison and meets a former guard who worked there. She asks him about her mother’s time in the prison.
With a heavy heart, the guard recounts the tragic story. Nawal was imprisoned for 15 years and was known for her remarkable resilience. She remained silent during interrogations and would sing instead of providing information. Everything changed, however, when the prison introduced a ruthless executioner named Abou Tarek. Nawal was repeatedly raped by Abou Tarek, resulting in her becoming pregnant. Jeanne was devastated upon hearing this and asked the guard about the child her mother bore in prison. The guard directed her to a nurse who had assisted Nawal during childbirth.
Jeanne shared her mother’s tragic story and the revelation of their sibling with Simon over the phone, prompting him to join her in Lebanon. Together, they met the nurse, who was now gravely ill. When the nurse learned that they were Nawal’s children, she recounted the story: Nawal had given birth to twins—a boy and a girl. The nurse had cared for them while Nawal was sent back to prison. When Nawal was released, she reclaimed her twins. Jeanne and Simon realized they were the twins mentioned in the story.
Another shocking revelation followed: the executioner, Abou Tarek, who had raped their mother in prison, was none other than their father—the man they had been instructed to find as per Nawal’s will. With the help of Simon’s notary friend, they tried to track down Abou Tarek, but no records of him could be found. Fortunately, documents related to their sibling were discovered at the orphanage where the child had been placed after birth. Their sibling was identified as Nihad, and to learn more about him, they needed to meet the leader of the Muslim militia that had once attacked the orphanage where Nihad had lived.
As a former influential figure, the commander was aware when someone was looking for him. Thus, he decided to meet Jeanne and Simon directly. During their meeting, the commander revealed that during the attack on the orphanage, he had taken Nihad. In other words, the news that all the children in the orphanage were killed was false. He went on to explain that he trained Nihad to become a fighter for the Muslim faction during the Lebanese Civil War. Nihad grew up to be a highly skilled combatant, renowned for his ability to neutralize enemies with precision. His prowess and ferocity made him a feared figure at the time. Later, Nihad was sent to Kfar Ryat to serve as an executioner.
Simon then asked if Nihad worked with their father, Abu Tareb. The commander replied that Nihad did not work with Abu Tareb. The story continued, interspersed with a flashback to a scene at the swimming pool—a moment briefly mentioned earlier. During that scene, as Nawal swam with her daughter, she noticed a man with a three-dot tattoo on his leg. Approaching him cautiously from behind, Nawal’s world shattered when the man turned around and faced her. She was left speechless and paralyzed. The man with the three-dot tattoo on his leg was the executioner who had repeatedly raped her—and her son, born with the help of her grandmother years ago.
The revelation that Abu Tareb was Nihad left Jeanne and Simon devastated. The commander, who had disclosed this shocking truth, informed them that Nihad was now in Canada. Jeanne and Simon then delivered the envelopes containing Nawal’s final messages to their father, who was also their half-brother. The letter Jeanne handed to Abu Tareb contained Nawal’s scorn and condemnation for him as her rapist. Meanwhile, the letter Simon carried expressed that Nihad deserved love and care from a mother, just like Jeanne and Simon had received. With Nawal’s final wishes fulfilled, her grave could finally be marked with a proper headstone, just like the others in the cemetery.
