Dheepan

21 Sept 2016

Director: Jacques Audiard

France

2015

110 min

Sivadhasan is a former Tamil Tiger soldier who is forced to move to a refugee camp following the conclusion of the Sri Lankan conflict. Viewing France as a potential home for his new life, he requires a convincing cover story in order to gain political asylum. He acquires the passport of a dead man, Dheepan, and, with two complete strangers, he creates a fake family. Along with his supposed wife, Yalini and his supposed 9-year-old daughter, Illayaal, he finds his way to a suburb of Paris and settles his newly adopted family in a housing project controlled by drug dealers. This new home, however, turns out to be yet another conflict zone and all three characters discover that the past is never easy to escape.

Winner Palme d’Or Cannes 2015