DHEEPAN (2015) - ♦♦♦♦
Directed by - Jacques Audiard
Written by - Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré
Starring - Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby
"Dramas about immigrants represent a prominent subgenre in contemporary French cinema. Jacques Audiard has flirted with the theme of immigration before, yet his Palme d'Or winning Dheepan
The film is about a man, a woman and a little girl inventing themselves as a family in order to escape the Sri Lankan civil war and emigrate to France. Once there, they are hired as caretakers of a large housing estate, that is ridden by crime and violence.
In the first part, however, this modern western like setting remains marginal to the film's prime intentions, that is to examine through an unhurried pace and a keen eye for detail the cultural barrier between the surrogate family and their new, alien environment. The shift in the focus of this contained and controlled storyline towards the Dheepan's second part is slightly disorienting and not as well polished.
It is just as fascinating to follow the development of their relationships with one another, forced to bond whilst behaving like an ordinary family. The screenplay's attention to character development makes it easy to follow the compelling portrait. There is the little girl, placed in a special needs class with other immigrant children still learning French. The woman, suddenly finding herself a wife and a mother but far too young and inexperienced to be either.
It is, however, the titular character of Dheepan who remains the most intriguing and closely examined. As the film progresses, we find he fits his new role as a patriarch, not so much due to a sense fo survival, but because of his need to have something to protect, a reflex remaining from his history of violence, as a soldier in the civil war. The role is played by novelist Antonythasan Jesuthasan, whose own first hand experiences as a former Tamil Tiger child soldier brings a whole enriching layer of depth and authenticity to the film, through an intense and restrained performance."
Drama, France
