Synopsis
Sri Lanka, in the midst of Civil War. Dheepan, a soldier, and Yalini, a young Tamil woman, are strangers with one shared objective - escaping their country. Posing as a married couple, and taking 9-year-old orphan girl Illayaal with them, they are exfiltrated as a "real family".
They end up at an immigrants' center in Paris, France, get their papers, set up home, make contact with the Tamil community...To support them, Dheepan sells roses, before finding a job as caretaker of a run-down housing block: two grim rows of concrete at the heart of a slum, on the outskirts of the city. They move in, and each tries to find his or her feet: Dheepan works, Yalini keeps house and Illayaal starts school...
But the neighborhood is far from peaceful: ruled by a gang of drug dealers, it is a place of violence and bloody score-settling. Dheepan and Yalini are unwillingly drawn into a conflict that brings back their darkest memories. Under threat, the former soldier is quickly forced to reawaken his warrior's instincts.