Scorched aka Incendies (Verbrennungen)

"To Jeanne and Simon: Childhood is a knife stuck in your throat. It can't be easily removed. Jeanne, Mr Lebel will give you an envelope. The envelope is for your father. Find him, and give it to him. Simon, the notary will give you an envelope... The envelope is for your brother. Find him, and give him the envelope. When the envelopes have been delivered you will be given a letter. The silence will be broken, a promise kept, and you can place a stone on my grave and on it engrave my name in the sun."
 
After their mother dies, Jeanne and Simon -- twins who’ve grown up in Canada – start searching for the father they thought was dead and the brother they’ve never knew existed. Their mother had stopped speaking years before. But in her will she stipulated that each of her children should be given a letter in a sealed envelope. The search leads the twins to their mother’s birthplace in the Middle East, and to her terrible secret. They gradually discover her true origins and who she really was. Their family’s past, shaped by civil war and senseless violence, forces them to rethink everything they thought they knew about themselves and start anew.
 
French Canadian author Wajdi Mouawad was born in Lebanon in 1968. His impressive play 'Scorched' – also filmed as 'Incendies' -- conveys how difficult it is for people to break out of a cycle of violence which is embedded in their very culture. It shows how individual fates are affected by the collective tragedy of war. And it reveals the helplessness felt by Westerners when faced with ongoing violence and conflict.