Pathiraja 'In search of a Road'

By Susitha R. Fernando

Undeclared full-scale war, human plights in Northern region, hunger and destituteness, which can not be captured due to the present state of the country would be an unfortunate experience for any sensitive filmmaker. Yet veteran filmmaker and lecturer Dr. Dharmasiri Pathiraja has captured this tragedy which he described as breaking up of links, cinematically in his latest docu-feature 'In Search of a Road'.

Director Pathiraja

A country where people divided with racial barriers and misunderstanding 'In search of a Road' is a timely move in which an artiste has responded with a call to educate and inform his audience. "I wanted to trace the history. If any filmmaker can't really film a situation that is existing in his own country it is a pathetic thing," claims Mr. Pathiraja.

Can a filmmaker go to Vakarai and capture what is happening there and thus I believe that filmmakers themselves too have become victims of this unending tragedy," laments the filmmaker who himself was a lecturer to many a student in Jaffna while he was teaching at Jaffna University in 1970s.

"Despite differences there were links between the South and the North. But now those links have been broken. During the time I worked in Jaffna I myself was travelling from Colombo to Jaffna regularly through A9 and the railway," the experienced filmmaker said.

The film takes as its main motifs the northern railway line in Sri Lanka and the A9 the two main links running parallel to each other from North to the South. The railway line and the A9 narrate the story of war and peace, of travel, mobility, place and displacement in this road movie turned documentary on the history of the Sri Lankan state and the ethnic conflict.

The story unfolds even as its people embark on a long journey on August 1, 1905 through place, land, territory, war and peace, home and state into the land of the unknown, to a no-man's land.

Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, the film takes us on a 100-year journey through history and memory in to the future.

Screened at the recently held Singapore international Film Festival, the film was highly recognised by the audience. Philip Cheah, the film festival director wrote ‘Dharmasiri Pathiraja's 'In Search of a Road' is both a documentary of history and hope. The film shows a road that has been jammed with conflict and misunderstanding. But it is also a road that carries the memory of peace and community. In Search of a Road is a prime example of cinema's ability to make connections and to bring people together’.

Having done such an historical endeavour, Mr. Pathiraja is still waiting for a distributor to take his movie to the audience. "I am not in a position to distribute this film. I showed it to the National Film Corporation but there was no response.

Pathirja's road

Dharmasiri Pathiraja began making films in the late 60s and took the film world by storm with his astonishing new wave style in the tradition of the Polish and Czech films of the time. His first film 'Ahas Gawwa' (One League of Sky) 1974 bagged all the prestigious awards at the Film Critics' and Journalists awards. With that he moved onto making other award winning films like Bambaru Evith, Para Dige, Soldadu Unnehe and a number of tele features and documentaries which have won national and international awards. In 1977 while teaching at the Jaffna University he made the path breaking Tamil film 'Ponmani' on an exclusively Jaffna based theme of inter caste relations.

Mr. Pathiraja was awarded the 'Golden Lion' for his life time contribution to Sri Lankan Cinema. 'In search of a road' is, yet again a work that breaks with his own tradition of filmmaking.

Cast........
Fermius, Lional Wickrama, ShanmUgalingam, Sharmini Chelliah, Jeyaranjini
Script - Sarath Kellepotha and Sivamohan Sumathy
Editor and Sound Designer
Elmo Halliday

Director of Photography
Channa Deshapriya

Narration
Sivamohan Sumathy

Narrator
Tissa Abeyasekera

Production Manager
Wimal halangoda
Production Executive
Lional Wikrema

Concept, production and Direction
Dharmasiri Pathiraja'

Supported by
FLICT