TV Times

TV Times

‘Sulanga Enu Pinisa’ flashes across Cannes for Lankan release
Much awaited Vimukthi Jayasundara's Cannes winner 'Sulanga Enu Pinisa' (The Forsaken Land) is now released at Savoy 2 and Cinecity, Maradana and other Film Corporation theatres around the country.

The film which was selected within the official selection 'Un Certail Regard' and won the prestigious award Camera d' Or- awarded for the Best Director of a maiden film at the 58th Cannes Film Festival.

Set in the backdrop of a post war setting "The Forsaken Land" epitomises the loss of humanity, and defines mankind's gradual descent into madness and barbarity.

The film revolves around a few isolated characters living in a vast, desolate region close to the theatre of war. The film follows each individual as they wander around aimlessly, and seemingly without hope; in a quest for meaning, the harsh terrain and the trauma of the past violence having left them incapable of finding any resolution to their alien existence. Despite the cease-fire, the characters see no redemption from the horror of their past or their uncertain present. The listless existence of one of the villagers leads to an incompressible crime: driven to murder an unknown assailant under cover of darknees, the scene is a haunting allegory to Raskolnikov's murder of a money-lender in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

The film is written and directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara, co- produced by Philippe Avril, (France) and Dr Chandana Aluthge and Upul Shantha Sannasgala (Sanhinda Film) in Sri Lanka.

The script of the film won the Prince Claus Film Grant Award for the best Cine Mart project at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2004. The film was financed by the National Centre for Cinematography (CNC), European TV Channel Arte, with Onoma as world sales agent and French distributor.

It was shot in Sri Lanka last year with technical specialist from France and the cast includes Mahendra Perera, Kaushalya Fernando, Nilupuli Jayawardana, Hemasiri Liyanage and Saumya Liyanage.

Channa Deshapriya handled the photography, Nadeeka Guruge music director, Gisele Rapp-Meichler and Rukmal Nirosh, Editing.

‘Sulanga Enu Pinisa’ (Forsaken Land) is the maiden film of Vimukthi, who has a number of short films including ‘Thibiri Dela’ (1996), ‘The Land of Silence’ (2001) and "Vide Pour ‘Amour’ (2002) to his credit. Asked about the release of the movie at the risky hour where all the attention is focused on the election and other happenings in the country, Vimukthi said "an audience is that really interested in a work of cinema would never be bothered to postpone a chance to see a film for anything else,"

‘And whatever happens politically, people need art and so I am not in releasing my film at any time’ said Vimukthi confidentlly. After releasing the film, the young filmmaker Jayasundara flew to Canada for the release of his film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Asia will be represented by Vimukthi's 'Forsaken Land' and Indian born Canadian based filmmaker Deepa Metha's latest film 'Water' at the reputed North American film festival this year.

Participating in the competitive section the film will be screened on September 11 (today), 13 and 17 at different festival venues. With today's release the internationally awarded 'Sulanga Enu Pinisa' marks its North American premiere.
Following the Toronto release, the film will go to Korea in the first week of October to participate at Pusan International Film Festival.

In the second week of October the film will be screened at the Montreal Film Festival, Canada which will be followed by the Bangkok International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. The film has been invited for eighty international film festivals including the Tokyo International Film Festival in November.

Among the international releases, twenty five copies of 'Sulanga Enu Pinisa' will be released in France from the beginning of next January and it will be released in the United States next November.

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