‘Silence in the Court’ A film on a controversial conduct of a judge
View(s):
Prasanna Vithanage
‘Silence in the Court’ Prasanna Vithanage’s latest cinema venture, a documentary based on a true incident-infamous judge Lenin Ratnayake’s alleged sexual abuse of a woman– will be released for a limited engagement from October 6. Probably for the first time, a documentary film is being screened in public cinemas with one show daily basis at 4.15 at Regal Colombo, Lido Borella and Amity Lite Maharagama.
Jointly produced by H. D. Premasiri and Prasanna Vithanage, the film was screened at several film festivals including Sakhalin International Film Festival, South Asian Himal Festival – Nepal, San Francisco South Asian Film Festival, Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Ottawa Human Rights Festival, Toronto Human Rights Film Festival and Melbourne Indian International Film Festival.
The film is released with the tagline ‘two women were raped by a judge. After a journalist fails in his struggle to deliver justice to them, a filmmaker embarks on a quest to unearth the cause for that injustice.
Speaking about his attempt to make a movie arround an incident–one the black marks in Sri Lanka’s judicial history– Prasanna Vithanage says “When I read the book ‘Unfinished Struggle’ by journalist Victor Ivan, the story about two women who were denied justice made me think about my existence as a passive bystander in the same system that failed to deliver justice.”
“As a result I visited the village where those two women still live. It reminded me of a rural area and its villagers in the novel ‘Village in the Jungle’ written by Leonard Woolf 100 years ago. Those villagers were also victims of their socio-economic background, at the mercy of climate changes and were confounded by the court and justice system during British colonial times. Since that novel, we have gained independence and become a republic. Yet, even at the start of the 21st century, rural villagers’ lives and fates remain the same”.
Among the technical crew M. D. Mahindapala is the director of photography, editor A. Sreekar Prasad, sound designer Tapas Nayak, narrator Rajitha Disanayake and executive producers are Rahul Roy, M. D. Mahindapala, Daminda D. Madawala and Vindana Ariyawansa.
