Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Dheepan Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 26, 2017

Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard's "Dheepan" (2015) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; audio commentary with Jacques Audiard and co-screenwriter Noe Debre; exclusive new video interview with Jacques Audiard; exclusive new video interview with novelist and actor Antonythasan Jesuthasan; and deleted scenes with optional audio commentary. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Michael Atkinson's essay "Things Fall Apart" and technical credits. In French and Tamil, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The husband

The European Union is in chaos. Its most prominent leaders like to pretend that they are in full control of the disruptive processes inside it, but it is now painfully obvious that at best they are only occasionally capable of slowing them down. How long would they be able to do it? My answer is this: Consider what happened when the Soviets created the Eastern Bloc after WW2 and their powerful ideologues attempted to micromanage the governments of the states that were part of it as well as their economies. Excluding the traveling restrictions that were imposed on the citizens of the ex-communist states, the basic structure of the model that the Soviets built is actually very similar to the one that the European leaders in Brussels favor today. Once again there is a central governing body, only this time instead of being in Moscow it is in Brussels; one big state routinely has the most powerful voice and directly influences the political and economic policies of the smaller states, quite like Russia did during the Comecon era; and there is a vision of the union’s socio-political future that is shaped up by a flawed ideology rather than the interests of the people that reside in it. Indeed, it is a complete recipe for yet another gigantic European disaster.

Jacques Audiard’s latest film, Dheepan, offers a glimpse of the chaos that is destroying the European Union from within while following a Tamil fighter (Antonythasan Jesuthasan), a young woman (Kalieaswari Srinivasan), and a child (Claudine Vinasithamby) after they enter France with stolen identity documents. In front of the local authorities they instantly become a ‘family’ and then settle down in a suburb of Paris that looks a lot like a hellhole from some unknown third world country. Here the ‘husband’ quickly gets a job as a caretaker in a crumbling apartment complex where pushers and all kinds of other shady characters are trying to coexist with hordes of immigrants, while the ‘wife’ becomes a maid for the seriously ill father of a prominent criminal boss (Vincent Rottiers) who controls the bulk of the area’s drug business. For a while the two play their roles and tolerate each other, but when the local gangs begin to clash and blood is spilled on the streets they are forced to reconsider their relationship.

In an exclusive new video interview included on this release Audiard explains that Dheepan was meant to be a hybrid of sorts with the love story serving as its central piece, but I think that the film is most effective as a myth-buster. The fighter’s journey from Sri Lanka to Paris makes it crystal clear that European immigration authorities simply cannot properly vet the people that are entering the continent because contrary to official reporting there are no reliable mechanisms that can provide them with proper information. Once in the European Union the immigrants then quickly become part of a second (or even third) class of residents who become detached from the values and culture of the state that has allowed them in, typically by being permanently isolated in large ghettos where crime is running rampant. The film also confirms that at least in France there are already too many ghettos that are fully controlled by local and ethnic gangs because they are too big for the authorities to confront.

Sadly, instead of raising a big red flag and delivering an urgent warning that France has entered a self-destruction mode, Audiard ends the film with an utterly disappointing feel-good segment that almost completely destroys its credibility. It literally attempts to defend the hypocrisy of the elite European politicians who have been trying hard to sell the idea that by uprooting people and permanently relocating them to a different part of the world they are solving their problems, while quietly and diligently serving the interests of powerful business and political players with dangerous global agendas.

Dheepan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.41:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Audiard's Dheepan arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"The film was completed in a fully digital workflow. It features a fully digital soundtrack. The 5.1 surround audio for this release was mastered from the original digital master files using Pro Tools HD.

Colorist: Charles Freville/Digimage, Paris."

The daylight and overwhelming majority of well-lit footage has the sharp and clean appearance that content shot digitally typically has. Some variations in terms of brightness and shadow/light balance are present, but they are part of the film's native photography. Depth is very good, including during the nighttime and darker indoor footage. However, I wish to mention that there are at least three different sequences where some rather awkward trailing pops up in the dark that becomes mildly distracting (examples can bee seen in screencaptures #14 and 16). It is difficult for me to say with absolute certainty why they are present, as they could have been introduced during the conversion process and are also on the digital master that is available for licensing, or are part of an encoding anomaly of some sort. Colors are stable, natural, and healthy. Image stability is outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Dheepan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (with small portions of Tamil). When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The film has a fully digital soundtrack and depth, clarity, and dynamic intensity are essentially replicated as they appear on the original digital master. There are absolutely no encoding anomalies to report. The English translation is excellent.

Dheepan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original U.S. trailer for Dheepan. With English text. (2 min, 1080p).

• Jacques Audiard - in this brand new video interview, director Jacques Audiard discusses his evolving vision of Dheepan (with some very interesting comments about his desire to shoot a film about people that admittedly he does not fully understand), the conflicts that are chronicled in it, the socio-political climate in France, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Paris in 2017. In French, with optional English subtitles. (22 min, 1080p).

• Antonythasan Jesuthasan - in this video interview, novelist and actor Antonythasan Jesuthasan discusses his childhood years in Sri Lanka and his activities as a Tamil Tiger until the end of 1986, his exit of the military movement and his decision to flee Sri Lanka after the Indian Army became involved in the conflict, the years he spent in Thailand as a refugee, his arrival in France in the early 1990s, his contribution to Dheepan, etc. In Tamil, with optional English subtitles. (22 min, 1080p).

• Deleted Scenes - presented here is a collection of deleted scenes, with optional commentary by director Jacques Audiard and co-screenwriter Noe Debre. With optional English subtitles. (9 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - in this audio commentary, director Jacques Audiard and co-screenwriter Noe Debre discuss in great detail the evolution of Dheepan from script to film, its production history, the main conflicts and the various dilemmas the main characters face, the film's visual style and atmosphere, its genre identity, etc. The commentary was recorded in 2015. In French, with optional English subtitles.
  
  1. Story within a story
  2. Names and faces
  3. Silent heartbeat
  4. The commonplace
  5. Always imperfect
  6. An erotic charge
  7. Pitfalls
  8. Drone shot
  9. Seduction
  10. "Cahier B"
  11. Full circle
  12. Tamil chant
  13. Shakespearean prince
  14. A tricky aspect
  15. A History of Violence
  16. Pictures of hopelessness
  17. Invulnerability
  18. The potential for peace

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Michael Atkinson's essay "Things Fall Apart" and technical credits.

Dheepan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Three-quarters of Jacques Audiard's latest film show the disastrous effects 'open border' policies have had on the European Union and how specifically in France the authorities have lost control of the large ghettos where refugees and migrants are concentrated. In fact, the film argues that the situation there is as grim, or worse, as many of the places that the foreigners are fleeing. (Early in the film there is a fascinating, truly eye-opening exchange between Dheepan and his 'wife' that describes perfectly what has happened, and what the mainstream news networks are not reporting). The final third of the film is an awful attempt to defend the hypocrisy of the elite European politicians who have been trying hard to sell the idea that by uprooting people and permanently relocating them to a different part of the world they are solving their problems, while quietly and diligently serving the interests of powerful business and political players with dangerous global agendas. While almost certainly conceived with noble intentions, Dheepan is a very rare misfire for Audiard and the weakest film to ever win the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival. If you are intrigued by its subject matter try to find a way to rent it, but do not consider a blind buy. RENT IT.