Although The King's Speech clearly cleaned up at last year's Oscars, there was far closer call in the Best Foreign Language film of the Year category; the Danish film In a Better World won gold, but there was stiff competition from the likes of Biutiful, Dogtooth and this remarkable French Canadian title.

Twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) are sitting in an office, awaiting their mother's will to be read out. But what should have been a formality takes an unexpected twist.

As well as their mother Nawal (Lubna Azabal) dividing her possessions between the pair, she has two letters that she wants them to deliver: one of them she wants to be given to their father, who they didn't know was still alive; and the other to be delivered to their brother, who they didn't know even existed.

With Simon reluctant to get involved, initially at least, it's down to Jeanne to fulfil her mother's final wish. It's a journey that takes her to the other side of the world; one that leads her to uncover a completely new side to her mother, as well as dark secrets from her own family line.

I can't believe that she left her Kylie Minogue music collection to you.

It's no surprise that director Denis Villeneuve was so taken by Wajdi Mouawad's stage play Scorched, that he wanted to adapt it for the screen. What is remarkable however, is the scale in which he has magnified the drama onto a far wider landscape, without losing any of the source material's emotional impact. It could have so easily been swallowed up by the vastness of the desert locations, but instead his open spaces somehow manage to intensify the drama of the piece.

Initially, the film slowly reveals its plot, in telling chapters, as we follow the twins' current journey, as well as delving into the past of that of their mother's. Both somehow simultaneously arrive at the film's grim conclusion, with the kind of twist that any Hollywood blockbuster would die for.

Villeneuve reveals just enough about his characters to keep audiences hooked throughout; which is amazing considering that the path on which they all take, is far from scenic at the best of times. It may not be considered an easy watch, but it's most certainly a compelling one.