By

K.S.Sivakumaran

Thanks to the Directors Guild for Lankan Cinema, we now have an opportunity to see international films of artistic quality in our own city. They deserve to be congratulated. Although I had problems in entering the theatres as a Press Pass holder, I managed to see a few films. Two films could not be screened due to technical difficulties, the volunteers said.

The films I picked and saw were, Beauty and the Beast ( I did not fancy this film much); The Night is Young, a French film by Leos Carax; Miles of a Dream, by Sri Lankan director Udhaya Dharawardena; an Iranian film, I am Not Angry, by Resa Dormishian, A Singapore/Australian film, Liberta by Kan Lumre; Disengagement, a French/Israel film by Amos Gital; Invincible, directed by Jahnu Barua; Silent Light by Mexican Carlos Reygadas; A Gun and A Ring by a Lankan-born Canadian, Lenin M. Sivam; Ferry, a Chinese film; Charlie’s Country, an Australian film by Rolf de Heer; Hannah Arendt, a German film directed by the famous Margareth von Trotta; a Dalit film by a Marathi director; and 28 by Prasanna Jayakody.

I also sat at a lecture/discussion by Carlos Reygadas. These were profitable days for me from the point of view of my learning the magic of cinema.

Here are some blunt points in my assessment of the films. Some films I did not like. A few, I liked. Some were beyond my comprehension. The German film was the film I liked most, for its cinematography, acting and because it helped me see an issue in a different way to how the majority sees it.

In this film, a German professor of philosophy was frank enough to point out that the murderer, Eichmann, was unable to think for himself when he was involved in the killing of thousands of Jews during the Second World War. Hana was herself a Jew and yet argued in her article to The New Yorker that there was a blur in the passing of death sentence to the murderer. Thus she earned the dislike of almost all the Jews but convinced the younger university students in an electrifying lecture that sparked a revolutionary thinking of that foregone age.

I saw the film by Udhaya Dharmawardene and it included some nice shots of Paris in its uglier condition – in an apartment besides some outdoor locales. The latter part of the scenes is set in Sri Lanka. The film had a thin plot line. One foreign woman having sex with two Lankans musicians in Paris is the recurrent theme. But the strength of the film was in the fact that it displayed the vagabond nature of present day youngsters destroying themselves with drugs and free sex. Although not an exceptionally outstanding film, the Lankans involved in the film need to be congratulated.

I also liked the Singaporean film for its experimental nature. One single woman tells her past in a monologue while driving her car on a long journey, interspersed with her encounters retelling the dialogues she had, her psychic analysis and her catharsis. It was like reading a novella.

Another film that interested me was the Iranian film, again a psychological interpretation. An older woman and a younger man falling in love fascinated me. Besides, the question of being angry and the resultant end brought me a feeling of empathy towards the fallen hero.

I liked the Australian film revolving around a native Aborigine man, and his audacity and genuine feeling for his own land grabbed by the colonialists.

Another film I liked was the Chinese film, Ferry. It showed human relationships and love and care in an unostentatious manner. It was a beautiful film.

As a Lankan Thamilian, I liked the film by a Lankan-born Canadian who had made a film to be reckoned with. Its presentation was neat. I was surprised that the so-called militants from the North could even kill each other and remain immune from any feelings toward their criminal assaults.

On the last day, I saw a film by Prasanna Jayakody. I must admit, I found it boring and the elongated duration was meaningless.

My impressions of the films may not necessarily be your impressions. I was glad to see some local and international films at the first-ever full length film festival held in Sri Lanka. I now need not go to India to see international films at the festivals in Goa and Thiruvananthapuram.

The contemporaneous situation where evil predominates is all shown in the films to educate us. It is the human predicament and expressing of humanism that prevailed in almost all the few films I watched.
I was very happy to listen to Carlos Regygadias, the Mexican filmmaker, because I have the same attitudes toward understanding the medium of film.

The new Sinhala film directors, such as Asoka Handagama, Prasanna Vithanage and Bennet Rathnayka, getting together with Vimukthi Jayasundara and others to enlighten our audiences of what cinema is, is a sure sign of progress.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today