Locarno creates a platform for Lankan independant cinema
One of world’s renowned and longest film festivals that created a platform for large number of new independent filmmakers, Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland this year features a number Sri Lankan creations and provide much needed support for country’s independent filmmaking.
A number of internationally renowned filmmakers and young and upcoming short filmmakers from Sri Lanka have gathered at the festival which started on August 1 and will last till August 11.
Prasanna Vithanage, Ashoka Handagama, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Sanjeewa Pushpakumara and Jude Ratnam who have made international recognitions are now at the Locarno festival with their film projects.
‘Thundenek’ ( Her. Him. The Other ), a joint cinematic creation by Prasanna Vithanage, Vimukthi Jayasundara and Asoka Handagama, will have its European premiere at Locarno with a screening today, August 5. The film which is yet to be released in the local cinema is a production of Office of National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR). Based on thematically related three independent post-war stories, this anthology film is the first collaborative cinematic exercise by three directors in the history of Lanka’s cinema.
Cinematography of ‘Thundenek’ is by M D Mahindapala, Eeshit Narain and Channa Deshapriya. Featuring Keshavaraajan, Nipuni Sharada, Pradeep Ramawickrama, Darshana Vidya Aravinda, Julian Kaushalya Mendis, Sherli Yasvin Ravishankar, M Safeer, M Rajeshvaree, Perlija Jeyaraj, Roshan Polvaththage and Mohamed Athif, three segments of the film are edited by Sheekar Prasad, Saman Alvitigala and Ravindra Guruge.
Jude Ratnam’s semi-biopic docudrama ‘Demons in Paradise’ is one of the noteworthy selections for Open Doors screening, a segmant which this year focuses on South Asian cinema.
The film had its international premiere last year at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in France as an official selection, where it was nominated for the prestigious Camera d’or (Golden Camera) and l’Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) awards. The Film was released in the French cinemas in March 2018 where it was critically acclaimed by film critiques of Les Cahiers du Cinema, Telerama and Liberation a few to mention.
So far the film has travelled the world to more than 25 film festivals in France, Germany, UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, India and Nepal and has been nominated for numerous awards.
The film has won the following four international awards so far, Best documentary feature – International History Film Festival – France (2017), Winner – Horizonte World Cinema Award – DOK Munich International Film Festival – Germany (2017), Best film – Film South Asia – Nepal (2017) and Grand Prix – FIDADOC – Morocco (2018)
The film also won the Most Promising Director Award at the Derena Film Awards last year in Sri Lanka and was also shown in the USA at the esteemed Michigan and Minnesota Universities.
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s newest film project ‘Amma’ (Mother) is one of the eight projects in the Open Doors sections at the Film Festival this year.
Open Doors is the Locarno Festival sidebar that operates under the Locarno Pro umbrella, promoting and enhancing the global reach of independent filmmaking from the South and East of the world. This year Open Doors concludes its three-year focus on the film industries of Southern Asia, selecting eight film projects in addition to presenting nine producers from the region.
Sanjeewa’s film project ‘Amma’ (Mother) is set in post war Sri Lanka. Thirty years of civil war have come to an end. Kala, a fifty-seven-years-old widow, an English Literature teacher at the university, is a Tamil who lives in Jaffna with her daughter and grandson. Her son, Rajan was abducted by an unknown group at the last stages of the war. Kala is on a relentless local campaign to find her son with several dozen other mothers in the same situation.
Open Door Lab, a training platform that promotes young and budding filmmaker and producers at the Locarno Film Festival has selected young Sri Lankan film producer Sumudu Malalagama as one of the nine participants from South Asia.
Sumudu started her career in 2009 and she founded her production company Green Pictures in 2014. Sumudu has created a number of short films.
Another young filmmaker and actress Lanka Bandaranayake’s debut short film ‘Tradition’ starring Irangani Serasingha , Kalum Gamlath in main roles will be screened at ‘Open Doors: Shorts film screening category.
Made in 2016, ‘Tradition’ revolves around an old woman who dresses a bride with Sri Lanka’s traditional jewelry and explains the symbolic meaning of each piece. These meanings bring the girl back to her past relationships and the scars they left behind. And suddenly, his future seems to escape him somewhat.
Asoka-Handagama
Jude Ratnum
Prasanna Vithanage
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Vimukthi Jayasundara