Written by Andreas Babiolakis

This review is a part of the Palme d’Or Project: a review of every single Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Film Festival. Dheepan won the sixtieth Palme d’Or at the 2015 festival.

The film was selected by the following jury.
Jury Presidents: Joel and Ethan Coen.
Jury: Rossy de Palma, Sophie Marceau, Sienna Miller, Rokia Traoré, Guillermo del Toro, Xavier Dolan, Jake Gyllenhaal.

If you can count on Jacques Audiard for anything, it’s to tell stories that are interesting. A Prophet goes the extra mile on what kind of life — and power — a prisoner can wield. Rust and Bone combines a serious workplace injury with a pugnacious lifestyle for one peculiar relationship. Paris, 13th District doesn’t settle for being just a romantic triangle. So you know his Palme d’Or winner, Dheepan, likely stood out for its own reasons, and that is certainly true. A gut-wrenching drama that leaves its best cards for last, Audiard’s crime drama about the haunting effects of the Sri Lankan Civil War may not be his strongest film, but it is just as unique as the rest of his filmography. The eponymous Dheepan Natarajan has actually assumed an identity for privacy purposes: he’s actually Sivadhasan. A former fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, he avoids being sent to a refugee camp by fleeing to France, and is partnered with other people seeking a place to live. They are now a family based on appearances only, and they try to make do in their new Parisian neighbourhood. They take on identities and responsibilities, and do what they can with their circumstances.

Of course, the jig is up fairly quickly in the film, and Dheepan becomes a story about having to answer to one’s past in the present. Most of the film is a spine tingling drama: either the titular character is having to find new ways to protect himself when he was supposed to be safe, or he is quarrelling with his family (particularly the young lady that plays his daughter). This was supposed to be a fresh start to a new life, and yet this is potentially more challenging than what he was going to face back in Sri Lanka (of course, we won’t ever know for sure). The family is constantly in danger, and you feel it at every instance, thanks to Audiard’s purposefully direction: you know there is going to be something worse around the corner at every instance. The first two acts of Dheepan are interesting enough — and certainly anxious — but I also was wondering where the film was willing to go.

That’s when Dheepan goes into full-on action mode, and goes out guns blazing. It’s clear that the majority of the film was build up for these final sequences of refugees facing the odds and doing whatever it takes to get the better life that they were promised. This is the Audiard treatment: that certain something that makes this particular film feel different. These are the film’s strongest moments, and Dheepan definitely becomes memorable as a result. It was a good drama, sure, but it’s an even better take on vengeance and justice through this lens of intensity. All of the frustration and anguish that Sivadhasan and his family feel (and worsen amongst each other) comes out here in this finale, and it’s parts exciting and a cathartic relief: it’s nice to get these stresses out of our system. Dheepan is forever hopeful, even in its most challenging moments, and it all amounts to us hoping that these poor characters just have easier lives. Dheepan reminds us that not everyone has it easy, and sometimes it feels like people are destined to flounder. However, Jacques Audiard is a filmmaker who has a Godly power over his story, and he chose to be a loving God here by going with the most interesting choice that Dheepan possesses: a Hollywood ending (in this instance, I will definitely allow it).

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.