Dheepan to open International Film Festival Colombo 2015

Friday, 9 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shiran Illanperuma

Dheepan, the story of a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee in France and winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will be the opening film at the 2nd International Film Festival Colombo (IFFC) in November.

Unfortunately no members of Dheepan’s crew including director Jacques Audiard and the film’s lead actor Antonythasan Jesuthasan (also known as Shobasakthi) will be able to attend the opening ceremony of the festival.

Director Audiard was invited by Festival Director Asoka Handagama but declined due to a busy schedule. Actor Shobasakthi cannot attend due to his status as a refugee, fearing reprisal at home and the potential revocation of refugee status if he were to visit.

Speaking in Sinhala at a press conference, Festival Director Asoka Handagama who has had run-ins with the government over censorship of his work, said that the high-profile screening of the film would not have been possible under the auspices of the previous regime.

In light of the regime change, Handagama said, “We expect the freedom to run this event our way and will be testing the tolerance of the government.” He said the festival will also showcase a series of state-critical documentaries titled ‘Seeking Justice’ curated by Anoma Rajakaruna.

Handagama has said that the the Directors Guild of Sri Lanka, who organise the festival, had joined with the new government to receive assistance but ultimately decided to organise the event by themselves with contributions from the National Film Corporation (NFC).

Master Class

The festival this year, which again is in association with the Okinawa International Movie Festival, will feature special Master Class sessions on film conducted by the likes of Professor Dragan Fimon, independent consultant producer Alby James and Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts Professor Lydia Milinkovich. Fimon’s Master Class lectures will focus on the career of acclaimed Serbian film director Emir Kusturica. James, who has had experience producing James Bond films, will be conducting a session on film production. Finally Milinkovich, who is an established film make-up artist, will be hosting a session on professional make-up called ‘Touch of Glamour.’

Featured programs

In addition to the over 50 international films to be screened, IFFC will for the first have a competitive element with ‘Asian Competition’ which will shortlist 10 movies from the region for an award.

In an effort to spotlight local talent a new event titled ‘Mosaic of Sri Lankan New Cinema Competition’ will feature films competing for the ‘Cinema of Tomorrow Award’, which will be judged by NETPAC.

The festival will also feature a selection of French and Japanese films under the sections of ‘French Film Corner’ and ‘Japanese Cinematic Flavour’ respectively.

In the documentary and short film corner, Ceylon Theatres (a partner of IFFC) will be honouring the top four Sri Lankan short films with a Regal Award on closing night at the Regal Theatre.

This year, the honour of Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan and film critic Aruna Vasudev.

Pix by Shehan Gunasekara