DHEEPAN. (2015) DIRECTED BY JACQUES AUDIARD. SCREENPLAY BY JACQUES AUDIARD, THOMAS BIDEGAIN AND NOÉ DEBRÉ. STARRING ANTONYTHASAN JESUTHASAN, KALIEASWARI SRINIVASAN, CLAUDINE VINASITHAMBY AND VINCENT ROTTIERS. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
I love the multi-award-winning
French film director and screenwriter Jacques Audiard. Well, I love
him but I'm not in love
with him, haha. I sort of met him in the flesh last autumn at the
Irish Film Institute's 2015 French Film Festival, by which I mean he
introduced his film A PROPHET, one
of the best foreign language films I'd ever seen in my life and
certainly one of the best films of the festival.
He was
a small sharp-dressed man, speaking in super-fast French which
required the services of a translator. That was pretty cool...! A
PROPHET (2012) was a phenomenal
cinematic experience, and one that I thought couldn't possibly be
bettered until I watched RUST AND BONE, Monsieur
Audiard's 2012 masterpiece, which
was shown later in the festival.
I
would dearly love to tell you all about these two Jacques Audiard
films, but for now we'll concentrate on DHEEPAN, a
film of his which was also shown at the festival but which I sadly
missed at the time. I've seen it now, however, and though I didn't
like the ending (it seemed just a tiny bit too 'pat,' if
you know what I mean), it was
still a bloody good watch. Here's the deal.
It's the
story of three people, a man, woman and child, who escape from
war-torn Sri Lanka to modern-day France by posing as a family, even
though none of them have ever so much as clapped eyes on the other
before.
They
find themselves living in a rough-looking housing project outside Paris, which
seems to be the equivalent of what we call 'council flats'
here in Ireland. Theirs is quite
a story. A PALME D'OR-winning
story, if you don't mind...!
The titular
Dheepan, the man of this ready-made family, is a former Tamil Tiger
who was on the losing side in the Sri Lankan Civil War, in which his
real wife and children were killed. In his new life, he gets a job
as resident caretaker of the flats into which they've all just moved.
To help
make ends meet, his new 'wife' Yalini
takes a job as chief cook and bottle-washer for an old man who lives
in the flats and their 'daughter' Illayaal,
a lively, intelligent nine-year-old, starts at the local school.
Their
problems are by no means over, however. The flats are overrun- and
controlled- by a bunch of thuggish drug dealers who'll leave you
alone if you mind your own business but they'll mow you down in cold
blood if you get in their way.
Dheepan has to work around
the hoody-clad yobs if he wants
to do his job. They're a menacing presence in the housing project
but, sadly, they pretty much come with the job. If Dheepan crosses them in any
way, there will be trouble. Big trouble...
As if that
weren't bad enough, Yalini, who was single, childless and free as air
in her former life, is really struggling with the responsibilities of
her ready-made family that have been suddenly thrust upon her. What
she really wants to do is to bugger off to live with her cousin in
London.
Will
she do it, and if she does so will she take her new 'daughter'
with her, or will she decide to
stay and make a go of things with Dheepan and Illayaal, who both seem to
want her around?
Don't forget that it suited both adults
at one point to have the orphaned little girl around, namely when they were
using her to help get them out of Sri Lanka, so if you ask me,
they owe the child big-time and
they have a massive responsibility towards her. They can't just walk
out when it suits them.
All
three leads play an absolute blinder in this marvellous film. Each one of them,
the little girl included, play their parts exactly as if they were
living them. The film is so real that it almost has a fly-on-the-wall
documentary quality to it. The two adults in particular turn in tremendous
debut performances.
Dheepan
looks like an Asian Oliver Reed, which is a humongous
compliment as Oliver Reed was
one of the big rides of his day and sooooo incredibly
handsome that a woman's nether garments
would
practically descend of their own accord on entering his
sexually-charged presence.
Speaking
of which, I would have liked to have seen Yalini enter into a naughty
'extra-marital' sexual relationship with Brahim (that's
where I thought that bit was going, to be quite honest with you!) but
it's probably for the best that she doesn't.
After
all, which is better, a 'husband' (even
if he is just a sham
husband!) with a steady if poorly-paid job as a janitor or a hot sexy
younger drug-dealer who lives by his own rules and answers to
no-one...? Oooh-er, don't make me choose. For the love of God, don't
make me choose...!
This
unflinching portrait of life as an illegal immigrant in a foreign
country is available on digital download from 1st
August and to own on DVD and BLU-RAY from 8th
August, courtesy of the jolly nice folks at STUDIOCANAL. Now,
didn't that brighten
your day up no end?
What
might be extra-exciting is if you watched this and the two films I mentioned
earlier in a sort of Jacques Audiard marathon. That would surely be
'excellent,' as Mr.
Burns from THE SIMPSONS might
say while steepling his ancient fingers.
Even if
you just watch DHEEPAN on its own, you'll
be doing yourself a big favour cinematically. It's another film,
another award on the mantelpiece for Monsieur Audiard and another
great gritty and authentic-feeling movie for us eager beaver viewers to get our gnashers into. Keep up the good work, Monsieur Audiard. Je totally
t'aime...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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