Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/film-tv/article/1898062/film-review-dheepan-jacques-audiards-palme-dor-winner-stunning Lifestyle
Film review: Dheepan – Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winner is a stunning immigrant drama
Riveting tale of Sri Lankans in France has echoes of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver
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When Dheepan won the much-coveted Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, it was something of a left-field choice from the jury. But there can be no denying the power of this tale of vigilante rage from French director Jacques Audiard, whose previous works include the much-heralded The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet and Rust and Bone.
A brief prologue in Sri Lanka sets the story as three strangers – a man, woman and child – are thrown together and escape the carnage of the civil war. Arriving in France, this trio cling to each other, desperate to make new lives in a world every bit as hostile as the one they left behind; yet this is no ordinary immigrant tale of hardships and struggle.
Kalieaswari Srinivasan in a scene from the film..
The film depicts evocatively life on the fringes of French society, where violence is never far away – not least when Brahim (Vincent Rottiers), leader of the local gang, returns from a stint in prison. The effect is galvanising on Dheepan, who ticks away like a time bomb as latent PTSD is triggered. Comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver are obvious but valid: the shocking finale will leave you stunned.
Dheepan opens on January 7