Dheepan

15 May 2023

Director: Jacques Audiard

See

Him: Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) is a Tamil Tiger for whom the civil war in Sri Lanka is over. Along with Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) as his stand in wife and Illayaal (Claudine Vinasinthamby) whom they allege to be their daughter to obtain the passports of a deceased family, the trio seek asylum in outer Paris, only to be exposed to its criminality. 

Her: Dheepan by Jacques Audiard, 2015. A story of a Sri Lankan ex military man Dheepan who after the war decides to flee the country as a refugee with a new stolen identity. Accompanied by Yalini and Illayal (his wife and a 9 years daughter, according to their also fake documents) they are sent to France and start their new life there. But the new seemingly peaceful country turns out to be not so peaceful in their micro world and requires Dheepan to remember the skills he gained in his old life.

Think

Him: I try and watch everything that’s quality but that means having blind spots and gaps. Bollywood being one, and there’s a shortage of brown actors in Western cinema. The only South Asian actor I can name to being familiar with the majority of their filmography is Riz Ahmed. And he has Pakistani heritage. But I chose Dheepan not for it’s cast, but a director I trust. Dheepan it seems to me to be like Licorice Pizza for Paul Thomas Anderson. In that this is a film by Jacques Audiard where the actors are unknown. And that means their performances are not bigger than the film. And the film is in service to the story. One that I hope is a true reflection of the lived experience of Sri Lankans. Antonythasan having been a boy soldier before fleeing to France. As well as tasting the cuisine, watching this made me want to read the 2023 Booker Prize winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka.

Her: It‘s a very deep, complicated and very thought through story. Audiard has a great talent to create characters that are wholesome, and very relatable.

When I was in Paris not long after the conflict in Syria and saw all those refugees I the streets, I felt rather disgusted with how dirty they were and could not find any empathy for them in me. I’m feeling ashamed to say that and realise that’s how I felt. I think (and hope) this movie made me a little better person.

Feel

Him: I considered another art house crime story but glad I chose this one. Audiard tells stories of the reality of modern France changing through profound characters often on the periphery of society. There’s a time in Dheepan when he’s feeling invited in to assimilate to the new community, and although it’s rough it’s not as bad as civil war. But then he’s triggered back into a ‘Rambo’ state. Is Audiard’s saying if a place isn’t made for migrants, they’ll take it by force? The way the lighting at night glistened off the cast's darker skin tones looked beautiful like in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight.

Her: Loved the title shot of Dheepan appearing from the dark with a glowing headband on. I think it sets the tone really well. Love the story development and twist. Love the dialogues, especially the untold lines. I feel like I haven’t fully understood the reason for a change in Dheepan’s character and why he was called to meet his ex war commander. Apart from that, the rest seemed to be very clear despite minimal dialogue and, again, lack of similar personal life experience that could have stopped me from relating to those characters.