Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, 2015): France

Reviewed by Adam Bensalah. Viewed during 2015 AFI FEST.

The movie “Dheepan” takes place in France. The director, Jacques Audiard, unveils to us a whole new perspective of how hard it is for illegal immigrants to find opportunities. The main character of the story is Dheepan a man from Sri Lanka whose family was murdered. He then decides to start a new chapter in his life. Furthermore, he goes to France with a woman who wanted to start a new life too, Yalini, and an orphan called Illayaal.

With that being said, regardless of their contrasting background, they manage to blend into the French community and try restore what they once called home. In our lifetime we learn a couple of words by different means, and some words require us to experience them in order to fully apprehend what they embody. In this case however, Dheepan and his new family spare no effort harmonizing with the French culture.

As far as I am concerned, I strongly believe that the movie was a piece of art; it reflects the real side of the cruel and dangerous world. Survival in such circumstances is no longer taken for granted. Life seems to put you under the stress and obligation to take irreversible choices that could lead to death. Furthermore, the movie was amazing and I do recommend watching it for anyone who is interested.