DHEEPAN tells the story of Dheepan, a former soldier who flees to France to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka. In a run-down Parisian suburb, he now lives for appearances with a young woman who is a stranger to him and a little girl, because their forged passports pass them off as family. In their struggle to fit in and find hope, they get caught in the middle of a bloody gang war. After RUST AND BONES and A PROPHET, director Jacques Audiard tells a gripping story of current explosiveness in a way that is both haunting and artful. The visually stunning thriller captivates with its authentic portrayal of a man traumatized by war and violence, who is willing to do anything for the dignity of his family. At the CANNES Film Festival, chaired by the Coen brothers, DHEEPAN was awarded the Golden Palm. “Like all of Jacques Audiard's films, “Demons and Miracles” is about how people come to terms with hopeless predicaments, how frustration turns into fear and violence. In the dark apartment in which the accidental family is supposed to come to terms, Audiard increases the pressure of the outside world, a concrete desert in which people are crammed together and left to their own devices, in which there is hardly any distraction, but violence from all sides. The poetry of intimate moments and brutal bursts of reality alternate in a narrative that is both a fairy tale and a commentary on the current refugee crisis. Ghettoization knows only one direction. And when ducking away is no longer an option, Dheepan, whose actor Antonythasan was himself conscripted by the Tamil Tigers as a child soldier, sets up the same “No Fire Zone!” that the government of his homeland once established, only to fire on the Tamils after all. The truce between the janitor, who no longer wants to be a warrior, and the gangsters, who don't want peace, can only be a fragile one in France too. [...] The “melting pot” of emotions and cultures is also united by the soundtrack, which features Indian sounds alongside Vivaldi and Nicolas Jaar's electrifying compositions as well as hard rap sounds. “Demons and Wonders” conveys an intense cinematic experience in magnificent images that are also prepared to expose violence in all its unaestheticized harshness. For Dheepan may be like the old elephant [of the beginning of the film], quiet, patient and waiting. But when the past catches up with him, he reveals himself and fights - to the death.” (Kathrin Häger, on: filmdienst.de)