Little Jaffna is a gripping crime drama that offers a colourful and insightful perspective on the French Tamil diaspora.

“Little Jaffna“, Lawrence Valin‘s stunning directorial debut, is a gripping crime drama that offers a colourful and insightful perspective on the French Tamil diaspora. Premiering at the prestigious Venice Critics’ Week, this film quickly grabbed international cinephines’ attention for its daring voice and naïve cinematic expression. It was also screened at the Toronto Film Festival and is set to be screened at Tallinn Black Night’s Film Festival under the Best of The Fest banner.

At the film’s heart is Michael (portrayed by Valin himself), a young police officer thrust into a morally ambiguous mission. Tasked with infiltrating a local gang, he faces the daunting challenge of reconciling his duty as an officer with his deep-rooted cultural heritage and personal connections. This internal struggle forms the film’s crux, as Valin masterfully intertwines personal dilemmas with broader sociopolitical themes, highlighting the clash between personal, cultural and historical identities.

The film’s setting in La Chapelle, or Little Jaffna, named after the capital of the Northern province of Sri Lanka, brings a plethora of cultural nuances to the narrative. This vibrant neighbourhood serves as a microcosm of the Tamil experience in France, where cultural memories are alive, and the weight of political history is palpable. Valin’s representation of this community is enriched by his heritage, allowing for a depth of emotion often lacking in narratives about the diaspora produced in France. “Little Jaffna” is intimate and sociopolitical. By keeping the exact calendar year and month rather ambiguous, Valin plays on the influence of political struggle in Sri Lanka and the perpetual French and Tamil cultural differences as a carving on a stone in shaping the lives of Little Jaffna inhabitants.

Valin is not a newcomer to directing or acting; his two short films, “Little Jaffna (2017)” and “The Loyal Man(2020)” are his first ventures into cinema and seeds that grew into a flourishing tree as “Little Jaffna” in 2024. Valin received the ADAMI award for “The Loyal Man” for his stunning performance. He brings the same brilliance to this film, further facilitated by the young and vibrant dynamism of the young gangsters. The new frontrunners like Vela Ramamoorthy and Puviraj Ravindran, whose naive brilliance and seasoned performances by famous stars like Radhika Sarathkumar create a memorable cinematic experience.

“Little Jaffna” is visually captivating and blends the flavour of South Indian mainstream cinema with the city-scape film language of modern French cinema. The cinematographer Maxence Lemonnier, in perfect harmony with Valin, brings a unique visual style to the film. This hybridized visual language evokes the emotional weight of Kollywood films, incorporates surrealism and poignant imagery, and will captivate the audience’s nostalgia and even challenge it. It’s a celebration of both cultures, creating a rich tapestry that enhances the storytelling and leaves the audience visually stimulated.

Raw yet subtle, robust and engaging, “Little Jaffna” has already left a unique stamp on international cinema.

First appeared in the Asian Movie Pulse.