Arts
A reel from the past: Pawuru Walalu at Sooriya Village
View(s):Art in the Village, the open mic event celebrating artists is back with a flash from the past. This month’s focus is the award-winning Sinhala film, ‘Pawuru Walalu’ (Walls Within), a film about a single mother in a traditional, Roman Catholic community in the 1960s by veteran filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage.
Prasanna Vithanage
Art in The Village welcomes all artists, musicians, dancers, dramatists, film directors, writers and others to the Sooriya Village at No. 49, Skelton Road, Colombo 5 today, Sunday, July 9 at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
Prasanna Vithanage’s films have won many awards, both local and international, and have also been commercially successful. In his early theatre work, he translated and produced plays by international writers, and has adapted works of world literature to film. Notable films written and directed by him include Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (2012), Akasa Kusum (2008), Ira Madiyama (2003), Purahanda Kaluwara (1997) and Anantha Rathriya (1996).
His latest release, Usaviya Nihandai (Silence in the Courts) based on actual events that took place in rural Sri Lanka a decade ago was a highly acclaimed feature documentary. Pawuru Walalu (Walls Within, 1997), his third feature, won the Best Actress Award for Nita Fernando in her role as Violet, at the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival. It won ten of eleven awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards in addition to several other local and international awards.
Pawuru Walalu (Walls Within), starring Tony Ranasinghe, Nita Fernando and Sangeetha Weeraratne is a tale about a single mother, Violet who conforms faithfully to the behaviour expected of a single mother in a traditional, Roman Catholic community of the 1960s with her two daughters in their small home inside Galle Fort. Violet’s lonely yet peaceful life is turned on its head when a message from her first and only love Victor arrives in the wee hours of one night.
The Sooriya Village, provides amenities such as rehearsal suites, a top notch recording studio, library and research services, a tech based lecture room, a restaurant, dorms, tea/coffee/juice lounge, performance spaces and plenty of hangout areas. Sooriya’s vision is to provide a facility for artists and art enthusiasts to nurture and explore the culture of arts .
For more details of the event, please contact the Sooriya Village on 0112552666.