Dheepan, film review: Dogged pragmatism and glimpses of grief

(15) Jacques Audiard, 115 mins, starring: Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby

Against the odds, the trio seem to 'integrate' and even to build their own makeshift version of a new family (Paul Arnaud/StudioCanal)

Jacques Audiard is French cinema's master of poetic realism, the Marcel Carné of his era. His style is deceptive. He takes what appears to be gritty, downbeat subject matter but treats it in a lyrical and reflective fashion. Dheepan, which won the Palme D'Or in Cannes last year, is the story of a traumatised Tamil soldier, a young woman and a child who pose as a family so they can flee the civil war in Sri Lanka and find asylum in Europe.

They end up in a crime ridden housing estate in Paris. Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) gets a job as a caretaker. The woman posing as his wife (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) works as a cook and cleaner for an infirm old man, one of whose closest relatives, Brahim (Vincent Rottiers) is a young and charismatic gangster boss, fresh out of prison.

Antonythasan, in real life an ex Tamil fighter himself who has since turned novelist and political activist, gives a remarkable, Jean Gabin-like performance as Dheepan. He captures his character's dogged pragmatism and will to survive while also giving us glimpses of the grief he has suffered and his guilt about the wartime violence he was involved in. Kalieaswari is equally impressive as his "wife," a hardened, seemingly cynical figure who shares Dheepan’s survival instincts but also his essential decency.

Against the odds, they seem to “integrate” and even to build their own makeshift version of a new family. The “daughter” (Claudine Vinasithamby) has behavioural problems at school but she too seems to be establishing a foothold in a new society. It is obvious, though, that Dheepan can’t escape his past. Like the character played by Romain Duris in Audiard’s earlier film The Beat That My Heart Skipped, he is torn by contradictory desires. As he roams around the estate with his mop and bucket, he seems a humble and even comic figure but t.here is a rage within him

The French banlieue turns out to be as much of a war zone as civil war torn Sri Lanka itself. A searing and brilliant film is only partly undermined by its wildly improbable, action movie style ending in which the lead character rediscovers his inner Rambo.