Little Jaffna is an impressive debut. A French film that follows a Sri Lankan Tamil community in Paris, it's a movie that touches upon identity, community, the connection of a disapora to their homeland, and a conflict people are simultaneously apart of, but unable to really affect.
Director Lawrence Valin borrows heavily from crime epics of the past. Little Jaffna follows aspiring gang member who also happens to be a police informant, Michael, (played by Valin) and also invites us to view the tapestry of people who make a place what it is - to mostly successful effect. I think the performances he managed to get out of mostly novice actors are remarkable, but there are two vets (undoubtedly from Tamil cinema, I'm sorry I don't know their names) playing older characters who have so much screen presence and gravitas.
When this movie is at its best, it reminds me of City of God and Les Miserables, movies that often feel like you're a fly on the wall and just seeing people's stories unfold. In that sense, it's a very French movie, relying heavily on the naturalistic style of French realism.
At its worst, I think the narrative can get a little sloppy for my liking. The movie wants to explore the concept of the "dual identity" many of us have as the children of immigrants, but regrettably touches on this in the most surface level of ways. I really think if they wanted to explore this, they needed to focus on this first and foremost.
There's a much more interesting story about Michael and his personal relationship with the Tamil Tigers, a now defunct group most of the world views as a terrorist organization, but many Tamils (especially in diaspora) still feel had the fundamentally just cause and right to fight.
Michael's entire motive and his internal conflict could've been brilliantly wed to the conflict in the movie and the real world civil war this movie takes place in the tale end of, but unfortunately doesn't quite get there. There's a final, riveting confrontation at the end of the movie that..by a few weird lines of dialog, just didn't work for me. By the end of the movie, it's hard to say exactly what the director was trying to convey.
Overall though, there's enough here I really liked to recommend it. It's a beautifully shot and expertly edited film, the performances are phenomenal, and it really paints the picture of a community and has you really feel a part of it. For that, I'd definitely recommend it.
