Director: Prasanna Vithanage
Country: Sri Lanka
Synopsis: When lonely, tortured pawnbroker Sarathsiri
meets and marries the beautiful, enigmatic Selvi, he thinks he has finally
found a way to put his past behind him. But a chance visit from an old
friend opens up wounds that threaten to tear open the barely healing fabric of
a mutilated nation coming to grips with the unspeakable cost of a thirty year
civil war. Will love help them cross the bridge? Or will the past continue
to colour the present? –Official site
Review: The
ethnic divide that plunged Sri Lanka into a three decade long internal war has created
indelible trauma in the two peoples’ psyche. A man from the majority Sinhala
and a girl from the minority Tamil were used by the director to speak of this
divide, this wound. In a sense, this is not a love story, but a hate story. A
hate story of two peoples, divided in mind and body, in time and space, who struggle
to be free of their past.
A beautifully nuanced plot is handled
even more brilliantly by a seasoned director. The conflict between the past and present of
the lead actors is an inspired metaphor for the Sinhala and Tamil peoples. The
music is as haunting as Shyam Fernando’s (Sarathsiri) chocolaty voice. The lush
greenish-blue village lends a post-war sleepy tone to the film. The camera
seems to be in love with Selvi’s (newcomer Anjali Patil) beauty, as I was. We
all talk about beauty, but to see it unfold is always magical. There are many
who argue that beauty is subjective. But to glimpse heaven in a pair of eyes
surely qualifies you in anyone’s list?
When your ethnicity colours your
values and actions, you are left with an urgent need to atone your errors. When
you are victimised for being different, you seek revenge at any cost, even at
the cost of happiness. You fall in love with the enemy. The lion sleeps with
the lamb, but when they wake up, they are still predator and prey. Love, sometimes
is just not enough.
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