The director's latest work is Pura Handa Kaluwara ( Death on a Full Moon Day). The film, a Sri Lankan- Japanese co- production, has received considerable international acclaim, appearing at a number of film festivals in Asia and Europe. It was also screened at the Palm Springs International Film Fest in California in January 1. The organizers of the Singapore festival, where the film was nominated for two prizes and won one, wrote the following synopsis of Death on a Full Moon Day for their catalogue: “For 1. Sri Lanka, the Tamils have been at war with government troops for an independent state. The blind Wannihami lives in a village with his daughter Sunanda, while his son Bandara is away fighting as a government soldier. Sunanda's boyfriend considers leaving the village to become a soldier so that he can earn enough money to marry Sunanda. Then one day Bandara arrives home in a coffin.”The state- run Sri Lanka Film Corporation has yet to take steps to make Death on a Full Moon Day available to the public, despite the eagerness of many people to see it. Participating in the discussion with Vithanage from the WSWS were Piyaseeli Wijegunasingha, Varuna Alahakoon and Wije Dias.
Piyaseeli Wijegunasingha(PW): You have often emphasized your preference for the cinema as a medium of artistic expression. Many cinema artists like you, who have had working relationships with the stage, prefer the stage to the cinema. It is also well known that you are in the habit of seeing a great many films. What are the reasons behind your immense feeling for the cinema? Prasanna Vithanage (PV) : I prefer the cinema as a medium of artistic expression because I see it as a powerful medium for self- expression. I have had connections with the stage in the capacity of a translator of plays and also as a director, but I think the stage is always the playwright's medium of self- expression. If we take one of Shakespeare's plays—say for instance, Romeo and Juliet —different stage directors may interpret it in different ways, but at the same time, what all these directors would endeavor to arrive at is the underlying meaning of Shakespeare's own play. Therefore the stage could never become for the stage director a medium of self- expression. The cinema, on the other hand, is always the domain of the director—the reason being, that it is the mind of the film director, which is revealed to us by way of the camera angles, and the camera lenses that he chooses to use. But not all cinema directors—however well known their names—are creators. What many cinema directors aim at is to relate well—that is, in a manner which could earn most income—stories supplied them by production companies. In my youth I never thought film could be a medium for self- expression. In those days the films carried us into a wonderland. Pavuru Valalu +1 Pinit Tweet Share Kamia sympatheia gia ton Diavolo +1 Pinit Tweet Share Retrato de una traves Review of Pavuru Valalu (Walls Within) By Piyaseeli Wijegunasingha Sumitra Peries (filmdirector): http:// Gallerys Gallery Art Korner: http:// Asian art/Sri Lanka: The Barefoot Gallery. We were mesmerized by the magical capabilities of this particular medium. Later I came to realize that the best medium to express what I needed to express, was film. PW: As we see, the essence of your film Pavuru Valalu (Walls Within) is that, through an objective depiction of the contradiction that exists between an individual's deepest spiritual yearnings and the established social institutions and norms—and by way of carrying this contradiction to the highest point of conflict—it brings the spectator to the realization of the necessity of a revolutionary change of society, the need for the socialist revolution. Sometimes an artist is not aware of the revolutionary implications that are contained in his own creation. Are you aware of the revolutionary essence contained in your film Pavuru Valalu? PV: After concluding my fourth film I looked back at all my films and what occurred to me was that there was one theme, which ran through all of them. This theme is the contradiction that exists between the individual and the established social institutions and norms. In Pavuru Valalu, in Purahanda Kaluwara, and on a more superficial level in my first film also, this theme occurs. The social reality that is uncovered by this theme is that the established social institutions and norms do not permit man to live according to his deep- felt spiritual yearnings, that they obstruct man from obtaining happiness and spiritual fulfillment. Looking back on my films I came to realize that they all contained this theme. With the intention of pleasing you, if I say now that I arrived at this theme by way of politics, that would be a deception. These established social institutions that obstruct man's attempt to live according to his deep- felt desires are powerful. What I consciously portray in my films is how man and woman struggle with these established institutional forces. In my film Pavuru Valalu I portray how Violet—the woman who lives inside Galle Fort and earns her living as a seamstress—becomes oppressed by established social forces and how she struggles to attain freedom. PW: You did not reply to one aspect of my question: are you aware of the fact that your film conveys to the spectator a consciousness of the necessity of the socialist revolution for the individual to attain a life of spiritual fulfillment? PV: Even in my school going days, I had personal connections with leftist politics. I believed in the socialist revolution. In those days, of course I did not have an understanding of the problems and contradictions that are confronted in the development of the socialist revolution. As if to a wonderful dream, I was attracted to it. Later in my studies about the socialist revolution, I came to realize that there were certain problems and contradictions regarding its development. I came to read books, which enabled me to see the contradictions that led to the degeneration of Soviet Russia into a bureaucratic regime; especially Leon Trotsky's book The Revolution Betrayed. I also read Trotsky's autobiography, My Life, and Isaac Deutscher's books on Trotsky. Even after coming to know in this manner the problems that exist regarding the socialist revolution—that Soviet Russia and Eastern European countries were degenerated and deformed workers states—my faith in the socialist revolution, the belief that man can attain a spiritually fulfilling life only after the abolition of the system of private property, still exists. What I want to say here is that—in the manner in which it is stated about artists in David Walsh's pamphlet, The Aesthetic Component of Socialism —I am not connected to a definite political movement. I have no understanding of the specific manner in which socialism can be achieved. PW: I would like to ask you a personal question—in relation to a statement you made to the magazine Cine- Sith (1. No. These are your words: “I often live in the past. We all have a nostalgic yearning for a by- gone era. We live with our memories. Such memories and reflections often appear in my films. How our family, during the 1. All these had their effect on me when I made Pavuru Valalu; Pavuru Valalu begins with such a family scene.”I would like to ask you: how old were you at the time you were speaking of? PV: I was six or seven years old. I have an image ingrained in my head of life during those days. At that time the chairs in the living room were kept in a circle. Today all the chairs are placed facing the television because the television holds a prominent place in the household. In those days the radio was switched on, but no one was entirely engrossed in listening. The conversation was carried along various topics and meanwhile we heard the songs too. I think in creating a film the director must create the situation with its atmosphere and get the spectators involved in it. PW: Pavuru Valalu is a film that has a deep and poignant effect on the spectator. At the same time one can see that as a director—rather than portray situations that can have an overpowering emotional impact on the spectator—you have a tendency to portray situations which bring out sharply and realistically the conflict that exist between the individual and the existing social conditions. Is this the result of a deliberate decision regarding artistic portrayal on your part? PV: There are two situations, I seek to avoid in creating a film. Film directors generally are a set of people alienated from society. In this country too, it is the same. You can see it from the films made here. Each film creates a world that is inherently its own. I reject creating such worlds in my films. These films approach problems in a melodramatic and sentimental manner. I avoid the melodramatic portrayal of situations that can often be seen in Sinhala films. What I chose to portray in Pavuru Valalu are the problems a deeply religious woman faces when she begins to live according to her heart's desires. When I create a film I never portray problematic situations with the intention of satisfying the spectator or making him sentimental. I only seek the best way to portray how a certain character faces up to a situation. I desire only to be truthful in the portrayal of characters. I never concern myself about satisfying the spectator. Some who saw Pavuru Valalu told me that I should have developed further the conflict between the mother and her two daughters. When I portrayed the relevant situation, I based myself on the understanding that the daughters were not the cause of the problems in which the mother found herself. The mother's problems were spiritual and psychological, and were at the same time social. By my particular manner of presentation, I might lose the interest of a certain section of the audience—but an artist must do only what he believes in. PW: You stated that the film is the director's work of art; but to create a film you need the participation of a great number of artists. In this situation, how do you manage to maintain the desired integral unity of purpose throughout the process of creating the film?
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