Little Jaffna review undercover cop thriller goes deep into French-Tamil gangland

"Here is a Paris-set story that unfolds during the Sri Lankan civil war and revolves around Tamil immigrants supportive of the insurgent Tamil Tigers, but politics is not much more to the fore than good old-fashioned gangster machinations. Writer, director and star Lawrence Valin is himself from the French-Tamil community and he immerses the film within that hybrid culture beautifully, drawing out the internal conflicts and loyalties that a man like the one he plays here, Michael, might feel in the circumstances."

"Like many of the people he lives among, Michael is an orphan who came to France after both his parents met violent ends in the war in Sri Lanka. Brought up by his grandmother (Radhika Sarathkumar), who is, like much of the community, a staunch Catholic, Michael is torn between a longing for acceptance in the immigrant subculture and the local white French people among whom he's grown up."

"But the secret that sets Michael apart is that he's an undercover police officer on a mission to infiltrate a Tamil street gang run by godfather Aya (Vela Ramamoorthy) and his head honcho Puvi (Puviraj Raveendran), both actors and characters with tremendous presence like Valin himself. As Michael rises up the gang's ranks, he learns more about their day-to-day operations, which involve basic extortion rackets, creaming funds from Parisian businesses in the neighbourhood known as Little Jaffna, as well as human trafficking."

This Paris-set film follows Michael, a French-Tamil orphan raised by his Catholic grandmother, who becomes an undercover police officer. Michael infiltrates a Tamil street gang led by godfather Aya and enforcer Puvi. The gang runs extortion, human trafficking, smuggling cash to support the Tamil Tigers, and preys on businesses in Little Jaffna. Michael struggles with identity, nicknamed 'whitey' for acting like a Frenchman and for vitiligo, while torn between immigrant community loyalties and assimilation. The film situates personal loyalties and gangster machinations against the Sri Lankan civil war's background, showing how news and homeland conflict shape everyday choices.

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