Incendies - Characters & Cast

Initially motivated by love for her child and her lover, her primary motivation becomes vengeance after witnessing the bus massacre. After her imprisonment and the birth of the twins, her motivation shifts to survival and protecting her children from her past. Her final motivation is to force a confrontation with the truth, no matter how painful, to free her children and herself.

Nawal's journey is one of immense suffering and resilience. She begins as a young woman in love, is radicalized by the violence of the civil war, becomes a political assassin, and endures 15 years of torture in prison where she is known as 'The Woman Who Sings.' After immigrating to Canada, she lives in a state of silent trauma. Her arc completes posthumously, as her will forces the truth to be revealed, finally breaking the 'chain of anger' and allowing her to be buried with a name.

Jeanne is motivated by a deep-seated need to understand her enigmatic mother and the silence that permeated their lives. She is driven by love and a sense of duty to fulfill Nawal's last wish and uncover the truth of their origins.

Initially, Jeanne is a quiet academic, seemingly detached from her family's emotional turmoil. She is the first to accept her mother's quest, approaching it with methodical determination. Her journey transforms her from a passive observer of her family's history into an active participant. She confronts the brutal realities of her mother's past, which forces her to mature and understand the deep-seated pain that defined her family.

Simon's initial motivation is to resist what he perceives as his mother's final act of control. His motivation shifts to protecting his sister and, eventually, a need to confront the past that has haunted his family and understand the source of his own anger.

Simon begins as angry and cynical, holding deep resentment towards his mother for her emotional distance. He initially refuses to participate in her posthumous quest, viewing it as another one of her games. However, as Jeanne uncovers more of the story, his anger gives way to a reluctant sense of responsibility. He travels to join his sister and ultimately plays a crucial role in uncovering the final, devastating truth, transforming his anger into a profound, grieving understanding of his mother's sacrifice.

As a child, his motivation is survival. The war twists him, and as Abou Tarek, he is motivated by ideology and cruelty. After the war, his motivation appears to be assimilation and the suppression of his past. The final revelation obliterates any sense of a clear motivation, leaving him shattered by fate.

Nihad's arc is a tragic spiral from innocent victim to monstrous perpetrator. Taken from his mother at birth, he becomes a child soldier, then a notorious torturer for the nationalist militia named Abou Tarek. After the war, he is given a new life in Canada. His arc culminates in the devastating realization of his dual identity as both Nawal's son and her rapist, the brother and the father of the twins. The end shows him standing at Nawal's grave, a figure consumed by a horrifying, inescapable truth.