Lawrence Valin’s Little Jaffna was one of the most thrilling breakout South Asian diaspora films at last month’s 49th Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF. An outstanding thriller-drama with ferociously kinetic energy, and delightful humour, you still felt the ache of the conflict of its double identity protagonist--is he more French or is he more Sri Lankan Tamil—a dilemma experienced by migrants universally. The story is about an undercover French cop of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, assigned to infiltrate the Sri Lankan Tamil criminal gangs in Little Jaffna, in Paris, in order to deactivate them.

Valin, who was born in France and is of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, is an alumnus of the film school La Femis in Paris, and directed two shorts, Little Jaffna and The Loyal Man, before co-writing, directing and acting in his debut feature, Little Jaffna. The film has a few autobiographical elements, and Valin told me he was sick of the roles he got as a brown actor in French cinema, so he became a director-writer and wrote himself a meaty role.