Film premiere in Italy, a dream come true- Harshana

“Premiering my maiden film in Italy was a dream comes true. I have heard that many Hollywood films used to have their premieres at various cities of Italy, the country which was famous for the history of cinema,” said Harshana Wickremesinge, the new filmmaker.

While the film aimed at Sri Lankan film lovers in Italy and other countries, he plans to use the opportunity to release his film internationally.

“At a time when the film release in Sri Lanka is a challenging task, it was a great opportunity for us to release the film in Italy and other parts of the world,” said

Harshana who also aims to take his film for international film festivals around the world. “Though it was my first I wanted make a movie focusing on the international cinema and audience,” he stated.

Started studying acting at the National Youth Services Centre at Maharagama, Harshana later joined the Shakespeare Centre where he acted in Shakespeare productions. Having acted and produced several stage plays, Harshana, entered mini- screen taking up assistant direction in 15 to 20 teledramas.

With the aim of becoming a filmmaker Harshana, joined cinema as a first Assistant director in six films including two foreign film productions in Sri Lanka. Among them are ‘Adarei Mang’, ‘Ape Kalaye Patachara’ and ‘Sikuru Yogaya’.

“However my dream was to be a filmmaker one day,” says Harshana contended with his maiden directorial venture.

Having worked in the theatre, television and cinema for nearly two decades, Harshana was confident to take up filmmaking when he came across an unusual and striking story.

Speaking about the storyline, Harshana said that it was a story that found by veteran journalist Nihal Peiris who shared it with him.

“I was mesmerized when I first heard it and there were lot of discussion followed” Harshan told the Sunday Times.

“It was about two children who identify the real human being behind thief and the real situation of thief. A thief is also another human being in this world. Most of the time they are compelled to become who they are and sometimes they are created by the society itself. Both good and bad are created by the society,” said the filmmaker explaining his story.

“Most important lesson that we learned from children is that the way they look at problems and issues are completely different from the way we look at them. Children are more open and honest”.