Anomaa excels at Dhaka IFF
Renowned film researcher and director Anomaa Rajakaruna’s documentary ‘Our Mother, Grandmother, Prime Minister: Sirimavo’ won the Best Documentary Women Filmmakers Section at the recently concluded 21st Dhaka International Film Festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
‘Our Mother, Grandmother, Prime Minister: Sirimavo’ is the story of the first elected female head of government in modern history, explored through casual conversations between her two daughters, childhood recollections and reminiscences of her two grandchildren captured for the first time in a recorded audio-visual engagement, and personal accounts captured in conversation between two longstanding members of the Ceylon Administrative Service, who were part of her government.
Our Mother, Grandmother, Prime Minister: Sirimavo is a documentary film of Sri Lanka’s first female head of government and longest serving Prime Minister, juxtaposing the personal and official roles of this unparalleled trailblazer, as she steers the Bandaranaike political dynasty through forty years of active engagement. On July 21, 1960, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was sworn in as the first elected female head of government in modern history, at the age of 44, within an year after the assassination of her husband, Prime Minister S.W. R. D. Bandaranaike.
This inside story narrated through the lens of six individuals -- her daughters, her grandchildren, and two key government officials serving as part of her team -- uses candid conversation to delve into the past and explore the life of a stateswoman with political acumen. By bringing to the forefront the personal viewpoints of her immediate family members as well as her office staff, the film unveils a moving narrative of an impactful, decisive leader of yesteryear, who forged the way in establishing women’s leadership. Agreeing to an arranged marriage at a young age, Sirimavo took on the responsibilities of the perfect host, for which she was trained from her teenage years. Joining the women’s front, Lanka Mahila Samithi during the early years of her marriage, she rose up to the helm of the organisation as its President, while nurturing her three young children and managing all her household duties.
Subsequently she was propelled into centre stage, mainstream politics as a result of the tragic death of her husband, the incumbent Prime Minister – one day the President of the Mahila Samithi, the next day the Head of State for the entire nation. Blossoming into a formidable leader in her own right, gradually she was able to dispel any doubts about her political prowess and capabilities. Having experienced close at hand, the impact of the first political assassination in the country, when the Head of Government, her husband of 19 years, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was massacred by a Buddhist monk, she was propelled into mainstream politics.
During her terms of office she faced a military coup, the first insurgency by young rebel groups, and after the end of her second term of office, was stripped of her civil liberties by the succeeding government. Frankly discussing these moments of great concern, this film successfully engages the audience with a hitherto unexplored perspective.
Anomaa Rajakaruna has documented the lives of women in Sri Lanka addressing the issues of women in armed conflict, displacement, sexual harassment and violence against women for over three decades. She has won several awards for her work, both nationally and internationally.
During the last five years, she has produced over 100 short films with Sri Lankan youth. Rajakaruna is the first female editor of a cinema journal in Sri Lanka, the founder of Agenda 14 Short Film Festival and the Festival Director of Jaffna International Cinema Festival since 2015.