Dheepan

After the Sri Lankan civil war ends, a former Tamil Tiger fighter leaves the country and settles in France. To improve his chances of being granted asylum, he presents a woman and a young orphan girl he has only just met as his wife and daughter, and the three of them are housed in a run-down public housing estate on the outskirts of Paris. He takes a job as a caretaker for the buildings, while the woman cares for an elderly man with dementia and the girl attends school. None of them speaks French, and life in the neighbourhood proves difficult, with drug dealers controlling the area. The three gradually grow closer as they try to build a life together, even as the violence around them threatens the stability they have found.

Jacques Audiard directed the film, his fifth feature, following Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet and Rust and Bone, and he co-wrote the screenplay with Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré. Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan and Claudine Vinasithamby play the three central characters, with Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga and Faouzi Bensaïdi in supporting roles. The production involved 41 credited crew members and was made by Why Not Productions, France 2 Cinéma and Page 114.

The film was released in 2015 and runs 115 minutes. It took about 8 million dollars worldwide. Critics rated it 7.7 out of 10 from 132 reviews, while on IMDb and TMDB, audience ratings sit lower, with TMDB showing 6.8 out of 10 from 538 votes.