The film tells the story of three Tamil refugees who flee the civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka and come to France, in the hope of reconstructing their lives.

He is given the passport of a dead man, Dheepan Natarajan, and pairs with people he barely knows, posing as his family.

Upon arrival, he lands a job as a resident caretaker and starts building a new life in a banlieue housing project named Le Pré.

Shootouts between rival drug gangs terrify Yalini and Illayaal as they try to fit into their roles as mother and daughter.

Caught in the crossfire of a climactic gunfight, Sivadhasan's latent battle-readiness resurfaces, and he single-handedly destroys an entire gang with just a handgun, a machete, and a screwdriver.

The site's consensus reads, "Dheepan offers a timely, powerful look at the modern immigrant experience in Europe.".

[14] The Independent called it "a radical and astonishing film that turns conventional thinking about immigrants on its head".

[19] When the film award was announced, the international press corps responded with a mixture of boos, shrugs and applause.