Locarno creates a platform for Lankan independant cinema

One of world’s renowned and longest film festivals that created a platform for large number of new independent filmmakers, Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland this year features a number Sri Lankan creations and provide much needed support for country’s independent filmmaking.

A number of internationally renowned filmmakers and young and upcoming short filmmakers from

Sri Lanka have gathered at the festival which started on August 1 and will last till August 11.

Prasanna Vithanage, Ashoka Handag ama, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Sanjeewa Pushpakumara and Jude Ratnam who have made international recognitions are now at the Locarno festival with their film projects.

‘ Thundenek’ ( Her. Him. The Other ), a joint cinematic creation by Prasanna Vithanage, Vimukthi Jayasundar a and Asoka Handagama, will have its European premiere at Locarno with a screening today, August 5. The film which is yet to be released in the local cinema is a production of Office of National Unity and Reconciliation ( ONUR). Based on thematically related three independent post- war stories, this anthology film is the first collaborative cinematic exercise by three directors in the history of Lanka’s cinema.

Cinematography of ‘ Thundenek’ is by M D Mahindapala, Eeshit Narain and Channa Deshapriya. Featuring Keshavaraajan, Nipuni Sharada, Pradeep Ramawickrama, Darshana Vi d y a A r av i n d a , Ju l i a n Kaushalya Mendis, Sherli Yasvin Ravishankar, M Safeer, M Rajeshvaree, Perlija Jeyaraj, Roshan Po l v a t h t h a g e and Mohamed Athif, three segments of the film are edited by Sheekar Prasad, Saman Alvitigala and Ravindra Guruge.

Jude Ratnam’s semibiopic docudrama ‘ Demons in Paradise’ is one of the noteworthy selections for Open Doors screening, a segmant which this year focuses on South Asian cinema.

The film had its international premiere last year at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in France as an official selection, where it was nominated for the prestigious Camera d’or (Golden Camera) and l’Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) awards. The Film was released in the French cinemas in March 2018 where it was critically acclaimed by film critiques of Les Cahiers du Cinema, Teler ama and Liberation a few to mention.