Rebel who returns searching for the lost love

Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s award winning newest film ‘Munnel’ (Sand) is being released with Sinhala and English dialogues in selected theatres from Friday, November 3 onwards.

Represented Sri Lanka in eight international film festivals, ‘Munnel’ won its 4th international award, the Audience Choice Award for the Best Narrative Feature, at 2023 Tasveer Film Festival of USA recently.

A story about an ex-Tamil Tiger militant who returns home after the war, ‘Munnel’ won the Special Jury Award in the Tiger competition, at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2023.

A former rebel returns home from military detention searching for his missing lover whose plight was yet to be revealed by the rebel’s soothsaying mother. Rudran, facing trial as an exTamil Tiger militant, is released on bail. He returns to his village in the Northern Province with his mother, an ageing soothsayer. While she spends her days in the spiritual realm, attempting to locate the whereabouts of those who have disappeared for a village community deeply bereaved, Rudran begins his own tireless search for his childhood love, Vaani.

The film stars Sivakumar Lingeswaran, Kamala Sri, Mohan Kumar, Thurkka Magendran, Goutam Sharma and Dharu Baalan. Cinematographed by Rishi Selvam, music direction is by Pathmayan Sivananthan Munnel is written and produced by Visakesa Chandrasekaram.

A filmmaker, human rights lawyer, writer, academic and artiste Visakesa directed his debut film, Frangipani (2014) which won him several awards, including Best Foreign Film Director at the 2015 Rio LGBT Film Festival. His second feature ‘Paangshu’ or ‘Earth’ (2018) too won several accolades at the international film festivals.