Dheepan

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens June 10, 2016

Runs 115 minutes

Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) is a Sri Lankan Tamil fighter, a Tiger, ready to flee at the end of the Civil War. He finds Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and Illayaal (Claudine Vinasathamby), other displaced refugees, and convinces them to pose as his wife and daughter because it is easier to get asylum in Europe if you have a family. Together they travel to Paris. Once in Paris, Dheepan works various odd jobs until he is assigned to be the caretaker for a run down housing unit in the suburbs. Things are looking up until he realizes that this housing unit is the home of violent drug runners and suddenly Dheepan is thrust back into warrior mode to protect his new "family". 

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, this is a very thought provoking movie. Especially, with the current migrant situation all of Europe is facing. Dheepan just wants to put the whole Civil War behind him, blend in and pretend that everything is ok and these two strangers are really his family. It is not so easy for them and none of them speak the language. The adjustment is very difficult. It is fascinating to see what they go through and the different emotions they face as they try to become a family. On top of that, they are faced with violence that they thought they would never see again. Everyone is great in this film. It is a little disjointed. Things happen with little explanation so you have to play catch-up. But, overall it is worth the effort. If you like foreign films with emotion and action, then this might be for you. Go see it.

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