Little Jaffna (2024), Director: Lawrence Vallin, Birmingham Indian Film Festival 2025, mac Cinema Birmingham, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Dan Auluk.

Little Jaffna (2024), Director: Lawrence Vallin, Birmingham Indian Film Festival 2025, mac Cinema Birmingham,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Dan Auluk.

Running Time: 1hr 40 minutes

“a bold, intense socio-political, crime drama that certainly delivers.”

Bravo to mac Birmingham for collaborating with Birmingham Indian Film Festival again and congrats to this launch opening film, an intense and emotionally charged cinematic experience.

A debut feature from French-Tamil director Lawrence Valin, is a bold, intense socio-political crime drama that certainly delivers. This film allows audiences to look closer or more internally into Tamil communities in Paris made by a French-Tamil Director. The last major feature film centred on Tamils in France was a decade ago when the French director Jacques Audiard, who won the Cannes film festival Palme d’Or for Dheepan, about three Tamil refugees on a housing estate outside Paris. Little Jaffna, shows us younger Global majority peoples, and generations, making the films where they are seen on screen from their own lived experiences, whether they are connected or disconnected from their communities.

We are told by titles, the beginning and end about Sri Lanka’s 26-year brutal and bloody ethnic conflict in which least 100,000 people were killed. This sets the tone of what is to potentially come.

The film, set in around 2009, is set in the busy, bustling La Chapelle district in Paris, fondly known by locals as Little Jaffna with a large, connected community in constant conflicts with other gangs. The film follows Michael, an undercover cop (played by Valin himself) who is assigned to infiltrate a violent Tamil gang, with links to separatist rebels in Sri Lanka, sending money back to support the cause; given by apprehensive irregular donations from local shops and human trafficking. Michael works his way deeper undercover into the heart of the organisation; his loyalties are tested as he is forced to confront the cultural complexities of his dual identities and the internal struggle from his lived experiences and conversations with his grandmother. The film gives audiences fresh insights into Tamil people, culture and economic migrants living in Paris and the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. We see tension build up, with people risking as much as they can to reconnect with their loved ones and their culture, or to escape to a newfound freedom, and the isolation and disconnection from arriving or living in Paris.

All the characters portrayed in this film (actors and non-actors) are authentic and the lead actors are layered characters, more than just the gangster violence portrayed; there are tender moments of love, comradery and conflict. Vela Ramamoorthy (Aya), the father of the collective group delivers an outstanding performance full of unsettling intensity – a stand out performance! Puviraj Raveendran (Puvi) as the deputy gangster lead, is both ferocious, intense and tender. Is this his first major film? If so we certainly need more of Puviraj on screen.

There were times when it felt the genres shifted from western type stand offs to thriller; but ultimately it is not just a thriller, it is full of heart and guts; and care. The big idea, for me, was about the conflict of loyalty and a sense of place.

The cinematography and editing in this film are top notch here, natural and not distracting. Congrats to the Director of Photography (Maxence Lemonnier). There is a confidence here with the camera movement and editing, with a brilliant soundtrack and sound design, with a fashion and costume design that is cloaked in style and reality (Joana Georges Rossi) and adds value to this immersive world.

Yes, in this genre there can be a feeling of predictability to it, but I feel mostly the film offers unexpected moments that pop up with ferocity. Dare I mention the rooftop, cricket bat scene and the references back to reservoir dogs.

This film is bold, fierce, intense and has heart! Go watch this – twice!

Cast

Lawrence Valin -Michael Beaulieu

Puviraj Raveendran - Puvi

Vela Ramamoorthy - Aya

Crew

Director - Lawrence Valin

Screenplay - Yacine Badday

Cinematographer - Maxence Lemonnier

Casting Director - Vibirson Gnanatheepan

Costume Designer - Joana Georges Rossi