‘Lester by Lester’- Autobiography of the Master

Lester by Lester, the monumental autobiography of Lester James Peries will be launched on Saturday April 21 2007 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

The book is published by Vijitha Yapa Publications as a limited Edition and each book, which is a collector's item, is numbered and autographed by Lester James Peries.

'Lester by Lester' is a celebration of half a century of locally and internationally acclaimed creative excellence. It chronicles in his own words the creativity of a lifetime of the Doyen of Sri Lankan Cinema, Dr. Lester James Peries.

Its twenty chapters are devoted to each of his twenty films, from Rekawa (The Line of Destiny. 1956) to Ammawarune (Elegy for a Mother. 2006), showcasing and chronicling half a century of film making.

He began with Rekawa (The Line of Destiny), his first feature film, a "commercial failure in Ceylon" as he says, which yet made it to the Mecca of world cinema - France's Cannes Film Festival - the following year. Since the launch of Rekawa 50 years ago, volumes have been written about Lester over the years by others, both locally and internationally. This is the very first time Lester has chosen to write about himself and his half a century film making career, in a single volume. The book takes its readers through the trials and tribulations to a variety of anecdotes and memorable moments in the making of his twenty films. It takes on an even greater significance and importance given the fact that Lester James Peries has now officially 'retired' from film making and will direct no more films.

Lester James Peries is what Satyajit Ray is to India and Akira Kurosawa is to Japan. Rightly called the 'Father of Modern Sinhala Cinema', he paved the way for a whole new generation of avant-garde film directors, who similarly broke away from the stereotyped formula films and experimented with new forms and genres to critical acclaim. Now revered as one of the Asian greats, Lester James Peries has won continuous international acclaim in several parts of the world. Kumar de Silva, who recorded the interviews with Lester over five years and edited this book, is a Colombo-based Public Relations and Media Consultant whose fascination with the films of Lester James Peries goes back to his teenage years in the mid 1970s.