- 2 hours ago
Nawal (Lubna Azabal), a dying Middle Eastern woman living in Montreal, leaves separate letters to her twin children to be read once she passes away. Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) is to deliver hers to the father the twins never knew, and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) is to give his to the brother they never knew they had. The siblings travel to the Middle East separately, where they each experience acts of brutality, uncover a startling family history, and have revelations about themselves.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00On the day the child was born, the midwife used a needle to prick three small marks into his heel.
00:04This was so that in the future, his mother could recognize him by that mark.
00:08The midwife carried the baby to his mother. It was their first meeting, and also their only one.
00:13Soon after, the child was taken away, and that same night, he was sent to an orphanage.
00:18Forty years later, the woman was by a swimming pool. When she saw those three familiar marks,
00:22she realized the person standing in front of her might be her son. She immediately stepped
00:26out of the water and walked toward him, but when she saw his face clearly, she stopped.
00:30She didn't go up to him, and instead, she treated him like a stranger and walked past him.
00:34After that, she sat down in a chair, her eyes empty. From that moment on, her condition quickly worsened.
00:40Not long after, she became bedridden due to severe depression, and eventually died from illness.
00:45Before she passed, she left behind a will addressed to her twin children. She requested that no funeral
00:50be held after her death, that her body be buried face down, with no headstone and no name engraved,
00:55unless her children completed her final request. She left behind two letters. One was for the father
01:01of the twins, and the other was for her eldest son, the man she had seen by the pool that
01:06day.
01:06She asked the twins to personally deliver the letter to him, but they had never heard of this
01:10brother, and they weren't even sure if their father was still alive. And so, the twins set out on a
01:16journey to find their family, gradually uncovering the past their mother had hidden for years.
01:21Their mother's name was Nawal. She was born in a remote village in the Middle East,
01:25While in college, Nawal fell in love with a young man. The relationship left her pregnant out of
01:30wedlock, which, in her family's eyes, was an unforgivable disgrace. Her boyfriend was shot
01:35and killed on the spot by her brother. When they were about to execute Nawal as well,
01:39her grandmother arrived, stopped them, and saved her life. Although she survived,
01:44the village no longer accepted her. After the child was born, he could only be sent away in secret.
01:49Before that, her grandmother left three marks on the child's heel, hoping that one day Nawal would
01:54find him again. Afterward, Nawal left her hometown and went to the city to stay with her uncle,
01:58continuing her studies. Five years later, a civil war broke out in the country. Her hometown was
02:04completely destroyed in the Alharb. Nawal returned alone to her homeland, trying to find her child,
02:09but the orphanage had already been reduced to ruins. A passerby told her the children had been moved
02:13long ago. Nawal had no choice but to keep searching. She boarded a long-distance bus.
02:18Not long after it departed, it was stopped by a group of Christian militia. Without any warning,
02:23they opened fire into the bus. Nawal hid behind a seat. As gunfire echoed through the cabin,
02:28when the shooting stopped, only she and a mother and daughter had survived. The militia then climbed
02:34onto the roof and poured gasoline into the bus, preparing to burn it. To survive, Nawal took out a cross,
02:39showed her identity, and lied that the little girl was her daughter, trying to take her away
02:44with her. As for the girl's mother, there was nothing she could do. The militia set the bus on
02:49fire, seeing her mother trapped in the flames. The girl cried out and ran back into the bus.
02:54The next second, she was shot dead on the spot. Nawal collapsed to the ground, unable to stand for a
03:00long time, but she didn't stop. As she continued searching for her son, she kept witnessing the
03:04destruction caused by the war. Along the way, there were ruined towns and wreckage everywhere,
03:09unable to find her child. Nawal began to believe he was likely no longer alive. With the help of
03:14a mysterious man, she joined a nationalist group and became an undercover agent. She was assigned
03:19to enter the home of a militia officer as a tutor for his son on the day of the operation.
03:23Nawal took
03:24off her high heels, hit a gun behind her back, walked into the yard, and fired two shots at the
03:29target. She was arrested on the spot and later sent to prison. The cell was small, with no basic
03:34sanitation. She could only pace back and forth in the limited space. Enduring the passing of time,
03:40the charge of assassinating an officer was enough to sentence her to life in prison.
03:44Fifteen years passed. From time to time, female prisoners were taken into a special room. It was
03:50controlled by a brutal guard who took pleasure in torturing inmates. Whenever screams came from that
03:55room, Nawal would start singing, her voice getting louder each time. Eventually, she too was taken into
04:00that room. Inside stood a man named Abu Tarek, his eyes cold and unhinged. Half an hour later,
04:06he walked out, leaving behind Nawal, covered in injuries. Not long after, she realized she was
04:12pregnant. She refused to carry the result of that abuse and desperately punched her own stomach,
04:17trying to end the pregnancy. When the guards found out, they immediately handcuffed her and
04:22forcefully stopped her. In the end, she gave birth to twins in prison. These two children were the
04:27siblings who grew up later. According to the rules, they were supposed to be executed at birth.
04:32But a kind-hearted midwife secretly saved the two babies and adopted them.
04:36After the war ended, the Christian militia was completely defeated.
04:40Baia was then released. As compensation, a leader from the National Party arranged for her to leave the
04:46country with the two children and settle in France. Twenty years later, an elderly Baia was by a
04:51swimming pool when she saw a man with three moles on his heel. She immediately realized this was the
04:56eldest son she'd been searching for all her life. However, after she saw his face clearly,
05:01she did not go up to recognize him. Not long after that, she passed away in depression.
05:05Before she died, Baia left a will, asking her children to uncover the hidden truth.
05:09Her daughter Jenny returned to her mother's hometown, hoping to find clues about her father or
05:14brother. She went to the university where her mother once studied, carrying only a photo of her
05:18mother when she was young. Fortunately, an elderly professor recognized the person in the photo,
05:23based on the background in the picture. He concluded that it was taken at a prison in the south.
05:27Jenny immediately went to that prison where her mother had been held. Locals told her that an old
05:32prison guard was still alive and might know what had happened back then. After many difficulties,
05:38Jenny finally found the former guard. From him, she learned about the brutal treatment her mother had
05:44suffered in prison. The old guard said Baia was prisoner number 72, and everyone called her the
05:49singing woman. The guard who got her pregnant was named Tare. The old guard did not know that
05:54Baia had given birth to twins. So Jenny naturally believed that the surviving child must be her
05:59brother. After a long search, Jenny finally found the midwife who had delivered her mother's baby.
06:05When the midwife saw the siblings, she broke down emotionally and confirmed a cruel truth.
06:10The prison guard Tare was their biological father. After learning they were the result of violence,
06:15the siblings felt extremely conflicted. They decided to look for Tare, but found no trace of
06:20him. With the help of a well-informed local contact, they finally discovered their brother's
06:25whereabouts. The brother was born in their mother's hometown and delivered by his grandmother.
06:29After that, he was sent to an orphanage. Although the orphanage was destroyed during the war,
06:35they managed to find a surviving record. All the identity information matched. The brother's name
06:40was William. The only way to find him now was to trace the military unit that had attacked the
06:44orphanage back then. This time, the younger brother went to meet him for safety reasons.
06:49He wore a blindfold the entire time when the warlord learned his purpose. He surprisingly
06:54allowed him to briefly remove the blindfold. Then the warlord slowly recounted what had happened
06:59back then. A group of orphanage children were gathered in one room. Soldiers were shaving their
07:04heads. One child had three clearly visible moles on his heel. His name was William. The warlord
07:10explained that he did not execute the children in the orphanage. Instead, he took them
07:14all away and trained them to become soldiers for his army. William was one of them. He
07:18later became the best sniper in the unit. The warlord once asked him why he always charged
07:23to the front lines. As if he did not fear death, William replied that he wanted to find his
07:27mother. If he could not, then he would rather die in battle. That way, his mother would see
07:32his photo on a wall and know he had once existed. As he grew older, William became increasingly
07:36ruthless. In his eyes, there were no limits at all, and he even spared no children. Later, William
07:42was transferred to a prison in the south to work as a guard. He changed his name to Tara. At
07:46that
07:46moment, a cruel truth finally became clear. The father Tara of the siblings was actually their
07:51brother William. After returning to the hotel, the younger brother could not recover from the shock.
07:56He kept repeating under his breath why 1 plus 1 does not equal 2, but instead equals 1. At first,
08:02the sister thought he was just talking nonsense from a fever. But after thinking about it repeatedly,
08:07she finally understood what it meant. She realized the unavoidable truth. A terrified scream burst out,
08:14followed by a complete emotional collapse over this moral tragedy. That day, the man Baya saw by the
08:19swimming pool was Tara. She could not believe it. The son she had searched for her whole life
08:24was also the man who had once abused her. Baya chose not to recognize him. She pretended they were just
08:30passing by each other, and he also failed to recognize the elderly prisoner number 72. It turned out
08:35they had been living in the same city all along. At that time, Tara was just an ordinary cleaner.
08:40Later, the siblings finally found him and handed him two letters left by their mother. He first
08:44opened the letter address to the father. In it, Baya wrote, I am prisoner number 72. Our children will
08:50bring you this letter, but you will not recognize them, because they have already grown up. Tara rushed
08:56out the door, trying to catch the siblings, but they had already disappeared into the crowd. Then he
09:00opened the second letter. It was written to her son. In it, as a mother, Baya expressed her love
09:05for him. She had searched for him her entire life, but after finally seeing him, she realized there was
09:10no need to recognize each other anymore. At the end of the letter, she signed, Baya and prisoner number
09:1572. After learning the truth, Tara stood frozen in place. It was a reality he could not accept under
09:22any circumstances. As for the siblings, they had fulfilled their mother's final wish and received
09:27her letters. A few days later, Tara went alone to Baya's grave. He stood there for a long time. No
09:33one
09:33knows whether he would ever go looking for the siblings, but one thing is certain. This pain
09:37would stay with him for the rest of his life until the end of his days.
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