For much of its running time, Jacques Audiard’s new film, “Dheepan,” is a gritty and naturalistic depiction of Tamil refugees trying to build a new life in France.
That’s a long way from where the project began, as a remake of the violent revenge thriller, “Straw Dogs.”
Audiard described the project’s beginnings as a vigilante movie.
The French director has long mixed genre-movie conventions and tough real-world subjects into powerful and distinctive films. His international breakthrough, “A Prophet,” reinvented the prison drama, while follow-up “Rust and Bone” was inspired by B-movie melodramas.
He describes genre as a Trojan Horse, a way of smuggling surprises past the audience’s defenses.
