WHO’S IN IT?
Antonythasan Jesuthasan (Sengadal), Kalieaswari Srinivasan (film debut), Claudine Vinasithamby (film debut), Vincent Rottiers (Silent Voice), Marc Zinga (Spectre), Faouzi Bensaïdi (A Thousand Months), Bass Dhem (My Stars), Franck Falise (The End of Silence), Joséphine de Meaux (The Intouchables), Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux (film debut), Nathan Anthonypillai (film debut), Vasanth Selvam (film debut)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone), director, writer, producer; Thomas Bidegain (A Prophet) and Noé Debré (Through the Air), writers; Pascal Caucheteux (Of Gods and Men), producer; Nicolas Jaar (film debut), composer; Éponine Momenceau (Made in Bolivia), cinematographer; Juliette Welfling (The Hunger Games), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Sivadhasan (Jesuthasan), a Tamil Tiger soldier during the final days of the Sri Lankan Civil War, decides to leave the country and move to France when his side loses the fight. However, to gain political asylum and avoid being recognised, he is given the passport of a dead man named Dheepan, and paired with people he barely knows posing as his family. Once in Paris, “Dheepan”, his “wife” Yalini (Kalieaswari) and his “daughter” Illayaal (Vinasithamby) move into a nearby building project and start a new life – only to find themselves in yet another war zone…
IN ONE SENTENCE, WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
The winner of last year’s Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, French director Jacques Audiard’s latest film is a powerful tale of beginning new lives in the wake of war and tragedy that deserves to be seen by any kind of cinema-going crowd.
