Cinema on Pablo Neruda in Ceylon
-
- Samanalee Fonseka and Indrachapa Liyanage in ‘Beer without Alcohol’
-
- ‘Me Mage Sandai’
Asoka Handagama who is well-known for his innovative and creative concepts and stories for theatre, mini-screen and cinema, is working on his latest film, a tale on Nobel Laureate Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Pablo Neruda who once served as Chilean Consul in Sri Lanka.
Handagam is awaiting the coming of two foreign stars, a Spanish actor and a French-Asian Burmese actor.
Shooting is scheduled for 21-days and the film is to depict Neruda’s early stay in Sri Lanka. The poet turned politician and diplomat was here for a short term of one and half years from 1929 to 1930. Production team is busy building a set depicting the house by the sea in Wellawatta used by Neruda in Wellawatta.
“It was impossible to find a house by the sea, representing the times during which Neruda served here. We decided to build a completely new set,” Asoka said.
From Puttalam along the entire Western coastal belt, Asoka could not find a house that suit the story and a place possible for filming without much disturbance.“Finally we started to build entirely new set by the sea off Nonagama, in the Down south”, he said.
The film will be for the international audience with some foreign stars playing the main roles including the lead of Neruda whose colourful life as a major literary figure, poet, politician and diplomat is to be featured.
‘Beer without Alcohol’
Handamga’s short film ‘Beer without Alcohol’, a mobile-phone cinema project produced while staying at home during the lockdown period has become immensely popular in the Youtube.
A story about two couples and one individual, their romances, desires, infatuations, misunderstandings and love was shot through Zoom on May 8. Interestingly the film produced within within less than a week while the director, stars, editor, music director all were at their homes.
Speaking about the idea to make a film during lockdown using available technology, Asoka says the idea germinated on one evening while he and his younger daugter were having an online chat with his eldest daughter who studies in New York.
“It suddenly crossed my mind that there is a possibility to do a film using the available technology. I had to use individuals and the couple Samanalie Fonseka and Indrapa Liyanage who lived under the same roof as there was an issue with mobility of actors. Rukmal Nirosh, who is in Melbourne played the duel role as an actor and editor while I directed from Thalawathugoda.
This instantaneous direction was an example for original filmmaking.
‘I got the idea on Monday, shot on following Friday, edited on Saturday and released online on Sunday. It was a virtual shooting’ explained Handagama.
The film has been invited to have a special screening at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, in Estonia.
Economist by profession, Handagama was holding the post of Assistant Governor at the Central Bank before he retired three years ago to dedicate full time for cinema.
Started in theatre, Handagama produced a number of theatrical production which were inovative in concept and artistically more radical, they were award winners at the main theatre festivals in Sri Lanka. He joined television directing ‘Dunhinda Addara’ in 1994, a complete detour from traditional stereotyped teledramas in the country. The mini-play bagged nine awards including Best Script and Best Direction at the OCIC awards. Later he produced teleplays like ‘Diyaketa Pahana’, ‘Synthetic Sihina’ and ‘Me Paren Enna’ –‘ Take This Road’ made during the ceasfire between 2003 and 2006. He made ‘East is Calling’, his last tele-serial in the aftermath of Tsunami disaster.
Handagma made his maiden film ‘Chanda Kinnarie’ is also in 1994 and it won the Award for Most Promising Director at the Critics’ awards in 1994. The film won the Best Film, the Best Director and the Best Screenplay at the 1998 OCIC awards. His second film, ‘Moon Hunt’ (1996) won six major awards including the Best Film, the Best Director, the Best Script, the Best Actor, the Best Actress and the Best Cinematography at the Sri Lanka Film Critic’s Forum awards in 2000.
His next film ‘Me Mage Sandai’ (This is my moon), won much critical acclaims and traveled throughout the world representing Sri Lanka over 50 international film festivals. It was also named “the most outstanding revelations of the decade” by the prestigious French Film Review “Les Cahiers du Cinéma”.
His next out-of the box film story, ‘Flying with One Wing (2002)’, the first film to address the gender issue in Sri Lanka and it won many awards including the Best Asian Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2002 and the Audience Award for Best Film at Torino International Film Festival. His most controversial film ‘Aksharaya’ (Letter of Fire ) was banned in Sri Lanka questioning the freedom of expression in the island nation.
In 2010 he made children’s film ‘Vidhu’ and later he made ‘Ini- Avan’, a film based on post-war northern peninsular. He made ‘Age Esa Aga’ (Let her Cry) in 2016 and his last film released last year was ‘Asandimiththa’, a psychoanalysis movie based on a novel by Saman Wickramarachchi. It too won critical acclaims and won the Best Actress award ‘Brilliant Performer’ for Nilmini Sigera at the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) 2019.