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| Saturday, 19 July 2003 |
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A celluloid journey across the oceans
Human smuggling has become a very crucial topic nowadays more than ever with an incident reported everyday about attempts made by Sri Lankan youth to enter Italy and other wealthy European countries illegally in search of their own fortune. This is the very same issue focused on in the emerging film director Boodee Keerthisena's much talked-about film - Mille Soya (Buongiorno Italia) which is to be released shortly. Boodee has successfully been able to make a closer look at the wide-ranging problems faced by the young generation of Sri Lanka who are stranded in two cultural worlds - always willing to take incredible risks to earn a fortune. Despite reports about many unsuccessful attempts to enter Italy while some are dying in airless baggage compartment of coaches and sinking boats - you still find there are many who follow this dangerous journey across mountain passes in freezing snow with the help of ruthless mafia type middlemen. " This is the story of our generation," Boodee says, explaining how the country's social, political and cultural changes since the late 1960s affected the lives of today's younger generation. From a closed socialist planned economy, Sri Lanka embraced sweeping and radical changes with the open economic system which introduced the free market.
This is the background set for Boodee's film in which he goes on to focus how the life of youth in this country changes with the insurgency in 1989 and the gun culture, violence - crimes that still prevail in the country. The film also pays attention to the two decade long ethnic crisis which claimed thousands of young lives. In his celluloid creation, Boodee has successfully painted how youth chose illegal immigration as a source of escaping economic frustration and a degenerating political culture. Boodee's film revolves round a group of young musicians in a coastal village who venerate Bob Marley and wish to become a famous band. But their lives on the lowest rungs of Sri Lankan society, with its poverty and violence offer them little or no opportunities. Their friends returning from Italy talk about the amount of money that could easily be earned there. This makes them pursue an illegal entrance to Italy after pawning their only lands and houses to wealthy businessman. The film then follows on their risky journey towards Italy with jeopardies, camaraderie, tears, laughter and death. While some die and are caught by authorities, others enter Italy. When in Italy, the appalling conditions of their day-today living, the hard labour, basic human frailties, love and hate are also shown. Shot in Europe including Italy and Sri Lanka Boodee's film is on par with an international production which offers a fresh cultural perspective. The film itself clearly shows that Boodee is committed to his subject as a young film maker. But, Boodee has a different idea. " In my film, I want to establish new hopes for the young generation that we have solutions for our problems in our own country. That's the hope I want to give them." The film stars Mahendra Perera, Ravindra Randeniya, Sangeetha Weeraratne, Jackson Anthony, Sriyantha Mendis, Kamal Addaraarachchi, Linton Semage etc. Having obtained his degree in Film and Video from the School of Visual Arts, New York, Boodee created a feature film " The Veils of Maya " which received 31 awards in 1997 - seven of which were for Boodee as the director.
At the moment, he is working on his next two projects titled " How Big Was My Country" and "Children of a Silent Age". Commenting on the present problems faced by the film industry, Boodee says challenges could be overcome by creating good movies to cater the to the demands in the sector." We must make movies which entertain people and that will help the industry to become economically viable," he added. It is also the first Sinhala film to feature a DTS (Digital Theatre Sound) soundtrack, where the digital sound is stored separately on a six-track CD and synchronised with the celluloid frames. This sorround sound system is far superior to the mono sound which our viewers are used to. ########### Travails of TB patients on small screen
The latest teledrama "Dolos Peya" (Twelfth Hour) directed by Dr. Sooriyaarachchi is now being telecast over the ITN on every Thursday at 8.15 pm. Despite his busy schedule as the Acting Director of the country's Anti Tuberculosis campaign, Dr. Sooriyaarachchi has taken an effort in this 10 episode teledrama to portray his own struggle of eliminating TB Sri Lanka. Scripted by Dr. Sooriyaarachchi, the Twelfth Hour revolves round a TB patient who evades treatment prescribed to him in order to pursue terrorist activities. The teledrama shows the damage caused to society by this patient who neglects treatment. As a result, his TB condition worsens and he gets infected with Multi Drug Resistance TB which is a fatal form of TB. The drama stars a veteran cast comprising Joe Abeywickrama, Palitha Silva, Sriyantha Mendis, Janaka Kumbukge, Chandani Seneviratne and Gamini Hettiarachchi. |
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Produced by Lake House |
Arts and medicine rarely combine each other. In contrast, Dr. Kapila
Sooriyaarachchi finds time to concentrate on his arts related activities
such as directing teledramas, singing, writing songs and script writing.
