August 6, 2016 – Cinema Perspective

After winning the prestigious Palme d’Or award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, ‘Dheepan’, directed and co-written by acclaimed French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, is at last due for a UK release. Said to be loosely inspired by Persian Letters, a literary piece by political philosopher Montesquieu, the film tackles the very topical subject of immigration. Sivadhasan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) is a Tamil Tiger freedom fighter in the Sri-Lankan Civil War who is sent to a refugee camp and given the identity of a dead man named Dheepan. Posing as a family, he and his supposed wife Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and nine-year-old girl Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) flee to France in search of a better life. Dheepan lands a caretaking job when they settle in a squalid suburb north of Paris, but soon faces danger in a very different kind of warzone.

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Following his writing and direction on Once and Begin Again, Irish filmmaker John Carney has established himself as a force within the musical comedy genre. He returns with rebellious flick Sing Street, set in 1980s Dublin. Due to the economic difficulties, Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is transferred from posh school to comprehensive, and struggles to fit in to his new regime. When he spots mysterious girl Raphina (Lucy Boynton) lurking on a street corner donned in sunglasses and style, he tells her that he is the singer in a band in an attempt to impress. To follow up on his little white lie, he brings together new friends including the witty and wise Darren (Ben Carolan) and jack-of-all-trades musician Eamon (Mark McKenna) to form Sing Street, a play on words taken from their school’s name.

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