Cinema
Death on a Full Moon Day
පුරහඳ කළුවර
Prasanna Vithanage · 1997
Synopsis
Wannihami, an old blind brickmaker in a village, learns that his son Bandara, a soldier, has been killed at the front; a sealed coffin returns to the village on a full-moon day. The State owes the family compensation of ten thousand rupees, which the husband of his daughter Sunanda would like to use to build a proper house. Wannihami refuses to sign: he does not believe in his son's death, whose letters keep arriving.
Context
The film is co-produced and financed by Japanese public television, and was shown in 1998 at the Pusan and Montreal festivals. On the island, the competent authority refused its release on 22 May 2000, in the name of the emergency regulations, and then a minister had its release postponed, for fear that it might hinder army recruitment. The Supreme Court ordered the ban to be lifted and the director to be compensated; the film was released in Colombo on 9 October 2001.
Who it is for
A seventy-two-minute film in Sinhala, sober and slow; some background on the civil war is useful.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prize at Amiens, International Critics' Prize at Fribourg, acting prize at Singapore; box-office record at the Regal in Colombo in 2001.
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