The surprise winner of the Palme D’Or at last year’s Cannes film festival; an award that a lot of people thought was more of a lifetime achievement honour for writer/director Jacques Audiard. For well over three quarters of this film, I thought that was unfair, as this is a heart-rending, realistic depiction of an outsider’s life in France that struck all the right notes with me.
Deephan is played by Jesuthasan Antonythasan, a Tamil freedom fighter who realising he will be on the losing end of the civil war in Sri Lanka is trying to flee to the West. Deciding it will be easier to get asylum if he travels as part of a family, he enlists the help of Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and orphan Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby), who are also desperate to leave their homeland, to pose as his wife and daughter.
This new family end up at a crime-ridden housing estate in France where Dheepan has secured a job as the caretaker and Yalini as a cook and cleaner for an older resident. Despite their surroundings and unfamiliarity, they begin to bond as a family and it seems with income coming in, they have really turned their lives around. It is that part of the film which is by far the highlight. Well observed and highlighting the tremendous performances of all three leads, there are some really touching scenes, such as one simple moment of Deephan and Yalini sharing an intimate moment talking at their kitchen table.
Unfortunately, the last part of the film is a let-down in comparison. The simmering gang warfare erupts into violence and Deephan has to go on a mission to rescue Yalini. I appreciate this is done so that we compare the violence of drug dealers in France to that of the factions in Sri Lanka, and that Deephan’s actions are not completely out of character, bearing in mind his background, but it did not ring true to me. The final coda of a brief scene in the UK feels totally out-of-place, though I wonder if it just a figment of Yalini’s imagination as she threatens to join her family in England a couple of times.
So, in the end, not quite a great film, but a very good one, well-acted throughout, and especially by Srinivasan.
Rating: 8 out of 10