Page - 192 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

192 | Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 191–193 collective and individual violence. how can people living in exile understand and overcome a heritage of revenge and violent annihilation? how can they deal with the merciless circumstances of their birth? The volume under review discusses the film Incendies (2011) in an interdis- ciplinary setting and presents the results of a project by Cinespi, a research group dedicated to film, religion, and spirituality that is based at the Université catholique de Louvain (see https://www.uclouvain.be/360857.html). the book offers deep insight not only into the film, its complex narrative structure, and stylistic choices for images and sound, but also into the screenplay. further- more, the comparison with the different versions of Mouawad’s play allows an interpretation of the film in dialogue with the text of the drama and with the varied performances of the play on stage. In the edited volume, the film is con- textualized within the filmography of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and considered in light of reception processes around the world. Drawn from a variety of disciplines, the contributions are part of a systematic, well-structured approach to the complexity of the film and to its inspiration in both history and the theatre. Viewed in this light, the volume can be considered an out- standing example of a successful, stimulating interdisciplinary exchange between theology, ethics, media, cinema and performance studies, french literature, and mathematics. The first contribution, by Serge Goriely, introduces the different references in Incendies, to history, particularly to the civil war in Lebanon, and to Mouawad’s play. By highlighting the stylistic and technical characteristics of the filmic ad- aptation, he stresses the film’s independent contribution as it forms a complex relationship with the theatre. The comparison between film and play is embed- ded in a revealing discussion of theoretical works, particularly those of Gilles Deuleuze and André Bazin. The comparison between theatre and film is enriched by an illuminating anal- ysis of the screenplay that is seen as a further aspect of the inter-medial proj- ect developed around Incendies. sensitive to the tension between theatre as text and theatre as performance on stage and analysing transformations of the screenplay during the production of the film, Gabrielle Tremblay understands the adaption of the theatre play as a dynamic process. The next chapters are dedicated to analysis of the film. Sylvie Bissonnette considers the use of character doubles within Villeneuve’s work. Aurélie Palud scrutinises the strategy deployed in Incendies, in particular at the aesthetic lev- el, to stage the uncovering of the truth and the related transformation. Arnaud Join-Lambert’s article concentrates on the role and significance of the notary, a central character in the film, who assumes a sacred connotation. The chapters by Sébastien Fevry and Marc Klugkist respond to the function and significance of genre aspects in this film, a “tragedy” in classical terms, with explicit refer-