A movie about a former LTTE fighter, coping with life as a refugee in the backstreets of Paris, opened in New York theatres last week to rave reviews. Titled “Dheepan”, the film won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year but took almost a year to hit the screens in the US.
According to the New York Times, the lead role is played by a former Tamil Tiger who went by the code name Antonythasan Jesuthasan, described as a guy with the “charisma of a Hollywood gunslinger”.
The irony of the story is that the Sri Lankan arrives in France in search of peace and quiet but finds himself living in squalid quarters in a neighbourhood resembling a war zone populated by asylum-seeking immigrants. The wife, also a Tamil from the Northern Province, wears a hijab even though she is not a Muslim but the head scarf helps her to blend in with the migrant Muslim population in the Paris housing project.
The movie has been described as “an immensely powerful thriller” and “a radical and astonishing film that turns conventional thinking about immigrants on its head.” Directed by reputed French film maker Jacques Audiard, the movie is in French with English sub titles.
The funeral of arguably the Queen of the Sinhala cinema Malini Fonseka, will be held with state honours on Monday, May 26, 2025, at the Independence Square.
First Bishop of the Batticaloa Diocese, Retired Bishop Joseph Ponnaiya, passed away today at the age of 74, following a brief illness.
The NPP government has been at the wheel for almost 6 months now. The time to keep looking at the rear view mirror and living in the past is about over.
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