Lubna Azabal

In Incendies (2010), Lubna Azabal can hold our attention just by keeping Nawal quiet. The anger remains, and she lets us see the effort needed to contain it. We were moved by that effort, because the performance never makes enduring such suffering look easy. She gives Nawal dignity without suggesting that being able to bear more pain is an achievement. It is a forceful performance, and much of its force comes from how much she holds back.

Azabal’s early film work includes Loin (2001), with Paradise Now (2005) bringing wider notice before Incendies became her international breakthrough. Her subsequent work has moved between French-, English- and Arabic-language projects, and between films and television. She played Atika Halibi alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal in the miniseries The Honourable Woman (2014). Later came Mina in The Blue Caftan (2023). Those changes of language and format matter, though our clearest reason to seek her out remains Nawal.

Denis Villeneuve gives that performance time, allowing suffering to register rather than hurrying towards the next discovery. Azabal carries the history that Nawal’s children are trying to recover, while Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette keep their investigation personal. The balance is imperfect: the children’s scenes sometimes leave the actors with little to do beyond asking another question. Some of the plotting is contrived, too, a weakness the strength of her performance cannot remove. But her control keeps Nawal worth watching even when the family mystery strains belief.

There is a danger in being so persuasive at playing women with difficult lives: the same sort of work keeps arriving. Azabal has spoken about receiving those offers frequently and wanting lighter parts. We would welcome that change, rather than another role that asks her to demonstrate how much a person can withstand. A script still needs to give her more than pain to respond to. Choose Incendies when there is time to sit quietly afterwards.