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| For Its Star, ‘Dheepan’ Was the Role of His Lifetime | For Its Star, ‘Dheepan’ Was the Role of His Lifetime |
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| PARIS — In “Dheepan,” the latest film by the French director Jacques Audiard, a migrant from a war-torn land borrows a passport and makes his way to France, where he seeks asylum. It is also loosely the story of the film’s star, Antonythasan Jesuthasan, a writer and former leftist militant from Sri Lanka, who arrived in France in 1993 with a fake French passport, eventually receiving refugee status. | PARIS — In “Dheepan,” the latest film by the French director Jacques Audiard, a migrant from a war-torn land borrows a passport and makes his way to France, where he seeks asylum. It is also loosely the story of the film’s star, Antonythasan Jesuthasan, a writer and former leftist militant from Sri Lanka, who arrived in France in 1993 with a fake French passport, eventually receiving refugee status. |
| The film, which opens in the United States on May 6, was awarded the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival by a jury led by Joel and Ethan Coen. When the film hit the festival circuit, Mr. Jesuthasan, who is not a professional actor and has supported himself as a cook and cleaner, traveled to Canada for the Toronto International Film Festival. | The film, which opens in the United States on May 6, was awarded the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival by a jury led by Joel and Ethan Coen. When the film hit the festival circuit, Mr. Jesuthasan, who is not a professional actor and has supported himself as a cook and cleaner, traveled to Canada for the Toronto International Film Festival. |
| “First time business class in my life — I was really happy,” he said in an interview here, speaking near fluent English. | “First time business class in my life — I was really happy,” he said in an interview here, speaking near fluent English. |
| But there were hiccups. With refugee status, Mr. Jesuthasan doesn’t have a passport, only a travel document. On arrival in Canada, he was questioned about his past with the Tamil Tigers. That insurgency sought an independent state for Tamils, an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka, before being defeated by the army of the country’s Sinhalese majority government at the end of a civil war in 2009. | But there were hiccups. With refugee status, Mr. Jesuthasan doesn’t have a passport, only a travel document. On arrival in Canada, he was questioned about his past with the Tamil Tigers. That insurgency sought an independent state for Tamils, an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka, before being defeated by the army of the country’s Sinhalese majority government at the end of a civil war in 2009. |
| “I thought, What should I answer?” Mr. Jesuthasan, 49, said. He told them his days as a teenage militant from a village without electricity were “long, long ago.” He was allowed to attend the festival, but he said the authorities kept his travel document at the airport, handing it back only when he left. | “I thought, What should I answer?” Mr. Jesuthasan, 49, said. He told them his days as a teenage militant from a village without electricity were “long, long ago.” He was allowed to attend the festival, but he said the authorities kept his travel document at the airport, handing it back only when he left. |
| Promoting the film grew more difficult. “I went to the Macedonia film festival. I was not allowed into the country, so all night I slept in the airport. Then I came back to Paris,” Mr. Jesuthasan said. After that, he told the publicist, no more festivals. “Dubai, Bangkok, I didn’t go. Enough,” he said. | Promoting the film grew more difficult. “I went to the Macedonia film festival. I was not allowed into the country, so all night I slept in the airport. Then I came back to Paris,” Mr. Jesuthasan said. After that, he told the publicist, no more festivals. “Dubai, Bangkok, I didn’t go. Enough,” he said. |
| “Dheepan” is all about questions of identity and belonging, bonds of convenience and bonds of love, and tribal divisions in the old country and in the new. | “Dheepan” is all about questions of identity and belonging, bonds of convenience and bonds of love, and tribal divisions in the old country and in the new. |
| The film begins in Sri Lanka during the civil war when Dheepan burns his Tamil Tiger uniform and all traces of his past. In the chaos of a burning village, he finds a woman, Yalini, (the Indian actress Kalieaswari Srinivasan), and a young orphaned girl, Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby). The three pose as a family, taking a dead family’s passports, and go to France. | The film begins in Sri Lanka during the civil war when Dheepan burns his Tamil Tiger uniform and all traces of his past. In the chaos of a burning village, he finds a woman, Yalini, (the Indian actress Kalieaswari Srinivasan), and a young orphaned girl, Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby). The three pose as a family, taking a dead family’s passports, and go to France. |
| They seek asylum — Dheepan fears reprisals from the Sri Lankan government — and wind up as the caretakers of a rough housing project in a French banlieue controlled by drug dealers of North African origin. The film, with dialogue mostly in Tamil, isn’t didactic but touches on the most contentious issues in Europe today — immigration and integration. | They seek asylum — Dheepan fears reprisals from the Sri Lankan government — and wind up as the caretakers of a rough housing project in a French banlieue controlled by drug dealers of North African origin. The film, with dialogue mostly in Tamil, isn’t didactic but touches on the most contentious issues in Europe today — immigration and integration. |
| One of France’s best known directors, whom critics have hailed for his dexterity with the camera, Mr. Audiard said he considered himself a genre filmmaker. But in the United States, his films, being in French, are relegated to the art house. “I’m at the intersection of two tectonic plates,” he said in an interview, where he arrived wearing one of his customary porkpie hats. | One of France’s best known directors, whom critics have hailed for his dexterity with the camera, Mr. Audiard said he considered himself a genre filmmaker. But in the United States, his films, being in French, are relegated to the art house. “I’m at the intersection of two tectonic plates,” he said in an interview, where he arrived wearing one of his customary porkpie hats. |
| He said he considered “Dheepan” a genre film that kept changing genres. | He said he considered “Dheepan” a genre film that kept changing genres. |
| “At the start, you can say, ‘Look, it’s a war movie,’” he said. “And then later, ‘look, it’s a social drama,’ like a documentary inside the home. And later we get to the banlieues and we think, ‘now it’s a genre film,’” he continued. “And then it becomes a love story, and after that it really becomes a film noir.” | “At the start, you can say, ‘Look, it’s a war movie,’” he said. “And then later, ‘look, it’s a social drama,’ like a documentary inside the home. And later we get to the banlieues and we think, ‘now it’s a genre film,’” he continued. “And then it becomes a love story, and after that it really becomes a film noir.” |
| The director is often pulled between high and low, like the protagonist of “The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” his 2005 film about a man who wants to leave a life of thuggery to pursue classical piano. Mr. Audiard came to international prominence with “A Prophet,” his 2009 film about Muslim and Corsican gangsters in a French prison. The film drew attention to France’s troubled prisons, a prescient subject, considering how many homegrown French jihadists have been radicalized there. (A Hollywood remake is in the works.) | The director is often pulled between high and low, like the protagonist of “The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” his 2005 film about a man who wants to leave a life of thuggery to pursue classical piano. Mr. Audiard came to international prominence with “A Prophet,” his 2009 film about Muslim and Corsican gangsters in a French prison. The film drew attention to France’s troubled prisons, a prescient subject, considering how many homegrown French jihadists have been radicalized there. (A Hollywood remake is in the works.) |
| When he started “Dheepan,” Mr. Audiard said, he set out to make a variation of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 thriller “Straw Dogs.” But he wanted to set it in a community that no one in France knew much about. He and his writing partner, Thomas Bidegain, settled on the Tamils. The story line evolved. A casting director got in touch with Mr. Jesuthasan, who had been in two previous films. | When he started “Dheepan,” Mr. Audiard said, he set out to make a variation of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 thriller “Straw Dogs.” But he wanted to set it in a community that no one in France knew much about. He and his writing partner, Thomas Bidegain, settled on the Tamils. The story line evolved. A casting director got in touch with Mr. Jesuthasan, who had been in two previous films. |
| During filming, Mr. Jesuthasan sometimes made corrections for accuracy. But he knew he was embodying Mr. Audiard’s vision, not his own. “There is nothing missing from Audiard’s film because it is his creation,” he said. “It will be different if it is my own creation,” he added. “For example, my Dheepan won’t cry.” | During filming, Mr. Jesuthasan sometimes made corrections for accuracy. But he knew he was embodying Mr. Audiard’s vision, not his own. “There is nothing missing from Audiard’s film because it is his creation,” he said. “It will be different if it is my own creation,” he added. “For example, my Dheepan won’t cry.” |
| Slight and brooding, with flashes of wit and mischievousness, Mr. Jesuthasan has led a Dickensian life. He joined the Tamil Tigers as a teenager. As he got older, he grew disillusioned and left the movement. Eventually, he went to Thailand, where he was jailed for not having papers. He flew to Czechoslovakia on a fake Malaysian passport but was deported to Bangkok. In 1993, he bought a fake French passport and tried his luck in France. | Slight and brooding, with flashes of wit and mischievousness, Mr. Jesuthasan has led a Dickensian life. He joined the Tamil Tigers as a teenager. As he got older, he grew disillusioned and left the movement. Eventually, he went to Thailand, where he was jailed for not having papers. He flew to Czechoslovakia on a fake Malaysian passport but was deported to Bangkok. In 1993, he bought a fake French passport and tried his luck in France. |
| At passport control at Charles de Gaulle Airport, he scanned the agents, looking for the one he thought would be most sympathetic. “I selected one black man, I think, O.K. black guy, it’s good,” he said. It didn’t work. “Nobody believed I lived in France,” he said. Like the character Dheepan, he sought asylum and lived for years in a rough banlieue of Paris, working odd jobs, like cleaning a hotel at Disneyland Paris. | At passport control at Charles de Gaulle Airport, he scanned the agents, looking for the one he thought would be most sympathetic. “I selected one black man, I think, O.K. black guy, it’s good,” he said. It didn’t work. “Nobody believed I lived in France,” he said. Like the character Dheepan, he sought asylum and lived for years in a rough banlieue of Paris, working odd jobs, like cleaning a hotel at Disneyland Paris. |
| With the equivalent of a 10th-grade education, Mr. Jesuthasan doesn’t read English or French but reads widely in Tamil. “I learned from Karl Marx, Lenin, Engels, Trotsky, Gramsci, Althusser, François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, in Tamil,” he said. | |
| Three of Mr. Jesuthasan’s novels have been published in English, including “Gorilla” (2008), about a Tamil Tiger child soldier. He writes under the pen name Shobasakthi, which means “black power” in Tamil. Before the civil war ended, he didn’t want to write under his own name for fear of reprisals. | Three of Mr. Jesuthasan’s novels have been published in English, including “Gorilla” (2008), about a Tamil Tiger child soldier. He writes under the pen name Shobasakthi, which means “black power” in Tamil. Before the civil war ended, he didn’t want to write under his own name for fear of reprisals. |
| “Dheepan” has stirred conversation in France about whether the country is welcoming to migrants. Yalini, Dheepan’s wife of convenience, dreams of leaving France for England. That resonates today, when many migrants trying to reach Britain have been held in a camp in Calais called “the Jungle.” | “Dheepan” has stirred conversation in France about whether the country is welcoming to migrants. Yalini, Dheepan’s wife of convenience, dreams of leaving France for England. That resonates today, when many migrants trying to reach Britain have been held in a camp in Calais called “the Jungle.” |
| Mr. Audiard said it was an artistic choice. “He doesn’t have a dream — she has one — to go to England. She’s right to have a dream,” he said. (In general, French critics praised the film, though some questioned whether the depiction of the banlieue was realistic.) | Mr. Audiard said it was an artistic choice. “He doesn’t have a dream — she has one — to go to England. She’s right to have a dream,” he said. (In general, French critics praised the film, though some questioned whether the depiction of the banlieue was realistic.) |
| Mr. Jesuthasan seems happy in France, where he lives with his sister and her family. “I think for the refugees that France is one of the best countries. That is why I am here,” he said. “Otherwise, I’d go to London.” | Mr. Jesuthasan seems happy in France, where he lives with his sister and her family. “I think for the refugees that France is one of the best countries. That is why I am here,” he said. “Otherwise, I’d go to London.” |