{"id":53187,"date":"2017-05-26T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T22:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53187"},"modified":"2017-05-26T23:36:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T03:36:25","slug":"53187","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53187","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Demons in Paradise&#8221; Directed  By Jude Ratnam Premieres At Cannes:  Documentary About Sinhala-Tamil Conflict  Was Shot On Location in Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p> INDRANIL MUKHERJEE <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jude Ratnam is worried how his film might go down with his fellow Sri Lankan Tamils. And he has a point.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/image-6-600x423.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"423\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-53198\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_53196\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53196\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/image-5-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-large wp-image-53196\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-53196\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jude Ratnam<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Demons in Paradise&#8221;, which is premiering at the Cannes film festival, tells of the bloodbath that drove some Tamils to take up arms in the three decade-long insurgency that tore the island apart.<\/p>\n<p>But the documentary also shatters a taboo by insisting that some of most horrific violence the minority endured was at the hands of their supposed defenders, the Tamil Tigers.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And the &#8220;hard truth&#8221; comes from the mouths of former Tamil fighters themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By making this film I know that I will have to face harsh, perhaps even hateful criticism from both communities,&#8221; Ratnam said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Sinhalese will claim that I am betraying my country by stirring up the past that is best forgotten. The Tamils will insist that I betrayed our cause by revealing the atrocities committed by the Tamil Tigers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"730\" height=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5r74vCZBXiE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ratnam was five when the anti-Tamil pogroms of &#8220;Black July&#8221; began in 1983, sending him and his family fleeing north from the massacres in the capital Colombo.<\/p>\n<p>Tamil grievances and suffering were real, the director insisted. <\/p>\n<p>The problem was &#8220;the Tamil liberation movement turned out to be complete madness&#8221; with many groups vying for control.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/image-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"282\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-53193\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As many as 20,000 civilians died as the Tigers &#8212; led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose supporters venerated him as the &#8220;Sun God&#8221; &#8212; imposed their will through a bloody reign of terror in the Tamil-dominated north.<\/p>\n<p>Ratnam believes another 10,000 disappeared after being tortured or taken to camps.<br \/>\n&#8220;If you don&#8217;t recognise that madness and just keep saying we were the victims, you are not facing the truth,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>By 1986, less than three years into the civil war, &#8220;people were more afraid of the Tigers than the army,&#8221; he told AFP. &#8220;People were terrified of them&#8230; they reigned supreme as the gods of revolutionary justice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the film, witnesses talk of the almost daily public executions of &#8220;spies&#8221; and &#8220;traitors&#8221; in the Tigers&#8217; stronghold of Jaffna. Opponents were also &#8220;necklaced&#8221; with burning car tyres.<\/p>\n<p>In one electric scene Ratnam brings together rival former fighters to talk for the first time around a campfire about what they saw and did.<\/p>\n<p>If the film has a hero, it is his uncle, a former fighter who grew disillusioned with the struggle and risked his life to smuggle civilians out of Jaffna.<\/p>\n<p>He returned from Canada with Ratnam to the family&#8217;s ancestral village near Kandy for an emotional reunion with the Sinhalese neighbours who hid him during earlier anti-Tamil violence in 1977.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a great man,&#8221; Ratnam said. &#8220;When I was 16 and I saw my people dying I wanted to fight. But he was the first to return and say, &#8216;This wrong, it&#8217;s messed up. What is going on is madness&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ratnam, the son of an Anglican priest, said facing up to the &#8220;hard truth of what happened is essential&#8221; if Tamils and the majority Sinhalese are to move on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Seven years after the end of the war, the victors are celebrated, general amnesia is encouraged and silence is imposed,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In a conflict that went on 30 years nobody is innocent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because of the Tigers&#8217; iron grip, &#8220;everybody got sucked into the ideology. The Tigers came to represent the Tamils, so if you are a Tamil you had to be a Tiger&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Ratnam took a decade to complete the film. Given the new Sri Lankan government&#8217;s commitment to freedom of speech, he said he hoped &#8220;they will allow the film to be shown&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not going to be easy. Some of my close friends will be upset by it. It&#8217;s a big taboo. I don&#8217;t think I will be able to show my face in Tamil diaspora areas abroad (where support for the Tigers is still strong)&#8230; nor Tamil Nadu in India.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am a Tamil, I don&#8217;t deny my identity, but identity also gets us into some lunatic positions that deny the facts or inconvenient truths. &#8216;Our people can&#8217;t be wrong!&#8217; is the attitude.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ratnam said he would be &#8220;much more comfortable back home&#8221; in Sri Lanka where people lived with the war to the bitter end in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fear destroyed the lives of three generations&#8221; in Sri Lanka since British colonial rule, Ratnam said, when ethnic differences were used to &#8220;divide and rule&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My uncle had a gun. I have a camera&#8230; I want to avoid a fourth generation being trapped in the snare.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:Agence France Presse<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><br \/>\n*********************************<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nDemons in Paradise, at the heart of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n<strong>Written by Eug\u00e9nie Malinjod<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>1983, Jude Ratnam is 5 years old. He flees aboard a red train from massacres carried out against the Tamils by Sri Lanka\u2019s pro-Sinhalese government. In his first documentary, the Sri Lankan Tamil director reflects on the country\u2019s 30-year civil war. The film is being shown as a Special Screening.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nQuestion: Demons in Paradise is the result of 10 years of work. What inspired you to make this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> I never thought I would make films. I was formally a human rights activist. Until 2006, I was working in the NGO sector. At that time, there was so much going around us, and I felt quite helpless. I wondered how I could reach people. When I watched Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin, I realised that films could do amazing things. That\u2019s when the idea of telling the story of the conflict came about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q;<\/p>\n<p>Demons in Paradise is your first documentary, shot on location. Were there any risks in making this film? What challenges did you face?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A:<\/strong><br \/>\nOf course! It was because of all the restrictions that I made this documentary. If there hadn\u2019t been that many restrictions, I wouldn\u2019t have done it. There were many obstacles to overcome, especially because I am a Tamil filmmaker. I had to play tricks to direct the film. For instance, I had to come up with the idea of a love story to be able to shoot in a particular location. The significant thing is that the whole crew was Sinhalese and they secured the permission for me. But I never wanted to give up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q;<br \/>\nWhat was the process involved in making this documentary?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Initially, I had the setting in my mind. When I started to write it, it looked very historical. But Julie, my producer, she suggested that my story should be the topic of the documentary. And I was reluctant to do that at first, because I didn\u2019t want it to be the focus of the documentary. But it made me think and then I realised that there was so much more in my family itself that I could explore. That was when I started to realise what the structure and form of the documentary would be. I started shooting with my uncle who came from Canada. Thanks to him, I met militants and then people who helped me with my research. It was a mammoth process.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nQ:<br \/>\nYou are the first Sri Lankan director to offer an internal perspective. How did this standpoint influence the documentary?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was important for me to have this introspective look at the conflict, because I realised that in war, no one is innocent. When you watch a documentary made from an outsider\u2019s point of view, you tend to have this feeling that one side is innocent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q;<br \/>\nHow do you think the film will be received in Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A;<\/strong><br \/>\nMy guess is that there will be fewer problems in Sri Lanka than in the other countries where the Tamil diaspora lives. This is because the ideology built up by the Tamil Tigers is that we are the victims and that the world has to acknowledge that it was a genocide. And my film actually questions all of this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q;<br \/>\nCan you tell us about your next project?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve had something in mind for 5 years, a documentary again, although I enjoy playing with &#8220;real&#8221; characters and put them in an almost fictional situation. I like the whole experience of the uncertainty that the documentary genre brings. I want to keep that uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><br \/>\n*****************************************<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton53187\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D53187&amp;text=%26%238220%3BDemons%20in%20Paradise%26%238221%3B%20Directed%20%20By%20Jude%20Ratnam%20Premieres%20At%20Cannes%3A%20%20Documentary%20About...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By INDRANIL MUKHERJEE Jude Ratnam is worried how his film might go down with his fellow Sri Lankan Tamils. And he has a point. &#8220;Demons in Paradise&#8221;, which is premiering at the Cannes film festival, tells of the bloodbath that drove some Tamils to take up arms in the three decade-long insurgency that tore the &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53187\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;&#8220;Demons in Paradise&#8221; Directed  By Jude Ratnam Premieres At Cannes:  Documentary About Sinhala-Tamil Conflict  Was Shot On Location in Sri Lanka.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53187"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53199,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187\/revisions\/53199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}