Little Jaffna

Lawrence Valin's 2025 French film is set in the Tamil quarter of Paris and follows Michael, a young police officer assigned to infiltrate an organisation running extortion and money laundering. The money collected goes to the separatist movement in Sri Lanka, and Michael comes up against his own family's past. Valin directs and takes the lead, and the film was developed from his own short. Its strength is tying the undercover template to a question of identity: the man genuinely does not know which side he is on. This quarter of Paris is a place rarely seen on film, and it is built in detail. The genre shape becomes predictable in the final section. Who it's for: viewers interested in French crime cinema and diaspora stories. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding violent content, or who would rather not watch without the political context.