Was anybody else bothered by the Mother's desire to have their children know this? Frankly, that's something I think most people would take to their graves rather than having their kids have to deal with that. And I don't buy the argument that she also wanted her children to know more about her life. She had all those years in Canada to let them into that part of her life if she had really wanted them to know.
shareExactly. I'm glad you asked this.
shareI agree, it was terribly cruel of her.
"Passion is just insanity in a cashmere sweater!"
It's very disturbing. Why would any mother let her kids know this, even if it's the truth, that's just plain brutal.
shareWhich really begs the question - why has this film rated so high when SO many posts are about the messed up nature of a mother sending her kids in this soul scarring, and possibly dangerous, mission? To me this film really wasn't that great at all.
shareWell, many war movies have high scores despite the fact that they talk about evil and brutality. Some of them even have sad endings, and even then they are great movies.
shareI thought the mother didn't realize her son was the rapist until the pool, at which point she had a stroke.
I think her will was written before that. She didn't send her twins on a wild goose chase to find 2 people that were actually 1 person on purpose.
Am I wrong?
I thought the mother didn't realize her son was the rapist until the pool, at which point she had a stroke.That's right.
I think her will was written before that. She didn't send her twins on a wild goose chase to find 2 people that were actually 1 person on purpose.It was explicitly shown in the movie that Nawal told the notary everything on her deathbed, after which the notary wrote everything down on his notepad in the hallway of the hospital, after which we see the notary write the final versions of the letters in his office and putting them in the envelopes. These scenes were shown directly one after another, as one flashback. In other words, the letters were definitely written by the notary following Nawal's instructions after she had her stroke.
No, I wasn't bothered by her wish after her death that her children, all of them, learn the terrible truths that the bloody conflict, which made her a refugee, created. If I was one of her children I would want to know and even though I would have feelings about learning this after her death, I would be glad still and appreciate how painful her adult life had been. It isn't easy for people who have lived through terrible traumas in their lives to tell their stories directly or coherently. It doesn't matter how many years in Canada she spent with them. None of that helped her. Only the sighting of her son and torturer accompanied by the knowledge of her imminent demise spurred her to act.
The distance is nothing. The first step is the hardest.share
Speaking as a child who learned a terrible truth in an unexpected way, I definitely like it that she told them. At least she gave them the right context and allowed them to take that journey together, as a brother and sister. Their relationship improved significantly during the movie.
On a different level, knowing the truth have the daughter peace in Knowing, while it allowed the soon to grow from a boy to a man in front of our eyes.
Yes, she just should have kept this quiet. And if she really felt that they should know, she could have told them while she was still alive, so she could explain things and help them process it. And if she thought that they should find out only after she died, she could have at least told them in a way that didn't make them trek halfway around the world into many dangerous situations, trying to follow up the slightest of clues that she doesn't even provide them to begin with.
And if she sets things up like she did, as a detective game for the twins to play after she died, with a heavy element of guilt involved, maybe the notary (who of course knows something about where this is heading) might have considered advising the twins to not take the bait, and let sleeping dogs lie. I know that we get all this BS from the guy about his sacred notarial duty, but there's nothing that stops him from being human in giving out advice.
The structure of the film (and presumably the novel too) makes for an effective way to tell a story, but it's no way that people should behave in real life.
I don't understand all the fuss about "why would she tell them?"
If I was in this situation as her child, I would have wanted to know the truth.
At any cost, in any situation I would have wanted to know the truth, not a thing less!
not all people prefer sweet lies over bitter truth...
Then again, I guess that explains why so many people prefer to follow mass medias!