Dheepan

Another slice of the rigours of life for some in contemporary France, the flight of three refugees receives powerful articulation from Jacques Audiard, whose reputation recently has rested on the likes of A Prophet and Rust And Bone.

In Dheepan, the director seems more subdued as he focusses on three characters in a fake family relationship who manage to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka to try to make a new life in France.

Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) gets a job as a caretaker on a grim housing estate while his fellow refugees settle down alongside him. The girl Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) starts school and learns French. The woman passed off as Dheepan’s wife Yalini (Kaliesaswari Srinivasan) finds work looking after an elderly man.

The estate harbours a drugs gang whose leader Brahim (Vincent Rottiers) has just been released from prison and returns to take over command, prompting a toughening of attitudes and a brutal stand-off.

Until this point, Audiard is content to observe the rituals and risks of this world where a word or gesture out of place can wreak havoc. Dheepan quickly finds out that the street fighting skills learned from the Tamil Tigers in his homeland serve him well in his new surroundings.

The director is adept at confronting ordinary people with extraordinary situations to test their resilience. It doesn’t always turn out well but here Audiard is determined to end on a positive note.