Dheepan

“Dheepan’s” Palme d’Or win at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival shocked pundits, but it’s hard to imagine any other outcome after seeing this exquisitely crafted masterpiece that lodges itself in your soul like sand in an oyster. A veteran Tamil Tiger, Dheepan finesses his way into the French immigration system by forming a makeshift family with a woman and a young girl who are also seeking a way out of a refugee camp. But political asylum in a Parisian suburb and the uneasy alliance they form for survival make for an exhausting, spirit-sapping daily grind. And when a neighborhood turf war puts them in the crosshairs, they find themselves as unable to escape the simmering threat of violence in their new European home as they were back in Sri Lanka. You’ll leave the theater hungry to discuss the dramatically controversial ending of this undeniable tour-de-force with your moviegoing companions.