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Veteran dramatist Jayalath Monoratne will fly to Europe next week with his latest production "Mala Walalu". He will tour a number of European countries for more than two months, staging his new drama.

Mano's new drama focuses on the plight of women in contemporary society and stresses the role that has to be played by society in alleviating such injustices.

The premiere show of "Mala Walalu", the eight stage creation by Mano, will be staged in Paris on May 26. Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria will follow.

"The drama discusses the problems faced by women in many spheres and sectors whether in working places, garment factories and in other countries where they are employed," Mano told Stage and Screen.

It also portrays how women become victims of money and power, he added. "This has become a contemporary issue," says Mano, justifying his selection of this particular theme for the drama.

Mano has only a six-person cast for the play: Chandani Seneviratne, Ratna Lalani, Sampath Tennakoon, Geetha Kanthi and Dayadeva Edirisinghe. Music has been composed by Navaratne Gamage.

However, Mano plans to increase the number of characters after returning to Sri Lanka. "Based on the experiences that we will obtain in Europe, I hope to introduce changes to the drama to make it more appealing to local audiences." Mano has acted in more than 100 stage dramas and produced seven. His contribution towards teledramas and also the cinema is immense.

As an actor, producer and writer he has rendered a praiseworthy service as a guide to society by utilising humour and ridicule to the optimum.

Through his dramas, he has always made an effort to highlight the shortcomings and injustice prevailing in society.

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Mano has won a number of coveted awards including Best Actor award at the State Drama Festival a number of times, best script and best supporting actor in films.

CANNES, France(AFP) - The Cannes Film Festival, world cinema's premier showcase and deal-making forum, opened Wednesday, turning this French Riviera town into a magnet for stars, movie executives and fans.

US director Woody Allen arrives with his wife Soon-Yi (R) and actress Debra Messing at the Palais des festivals to attend the opening ceremony of the 55th Cannes film festival 15 May 2002. Twenty-two films are in competition for the Golden Palm. US director Woody Allen’s latest movie with Debra Messing opens the festival out of competition. AFP

All along the palm-lined beach, thousands of tourists and locals walked under billboards promoting future Hollywood blockbusters while Rolls-Royces and Ferraris crawled past police on alert against any threat to the high-profile 12-day event.

At the main festival building, nicknamed "the bunker" by residents, guards stood by the red-carpeted stairs that will be climbed by glamorously dressed celebrities later Wednesday, when Woody Allen's latest film, "Hollywood Ending", brings up the curtain on the official line-up.

Allen himself has dropped his long-held reluctance to appear at festivals to personally present his film, a mocking swipe at the US movie business and a warm dig at the French, who regard him as a cinema legend.

"I've never come - and I felt that after so many years I wanted to give some gesture of reciprocity.... I felt that I should say yes once," he told a press conference. He said he was not sure how he was meant to behave, but added: "I've already rented a tuxedo and it's too late to back out."

Starting Thursday, the Cannes jury - headed by US director David Lynch and including actresses Sharon Stone and Michelle Yeoh - will be carefully looking over 22 other films that make up the list of contenders for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize to be awarded May 26.

Controversy appears to be the watchword for many of the movies in competition, which, although heavy on British and US features, falls largely in the "auteur" category. One of the four French films, "Irreversible" promises scandal with a realistic rape and murder scene that even its female star, Italian actress Monica Bellucci, has said she ca not bear to watch.

Two others turn their lenses on the Middle East: "Kedma", by Israeli director Amos Gitai, tells the story of Holocaust survivors arriving in Palestine in 1948, while "Divine Intervention", by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, explores a love story disrupted by Israeli checkpoints and oppression.

And one of the US films, "Bowling for Columbine", by Michael Moore, looks at the culture of guns and violence in the United States, with the title being a reference to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

But away from the competition screenings are some 700 other cinematographic offerings, most of them part of the "market" - the trade show and business meetings between the 7,000 movie industry types around the world who haggle deals behind the glitz of the festival.

Others are special screenings designed to attract international media attention, like Thursday's showing of "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones", which will be preceded by a press conference with the film series' billionaire creator, George Lucas. For the crowds of fans and ordinary people unable to get into any of the strictly restricted projections - or the exclusive parties afterwards - there was still the hope of catching a glimpse of the galaxy of celebrities expected to make an appearance.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Elton John and Iman are among those known to be popping up but many others could also arrive, taking a moment to pose on the red carpet in front of the forest of cameras.

CANNES, France, (AFP) - Director Woody Allen spoke out Wednesday against a US Jewish group's call for Hollywood stars and powerbrokers to boycott the Cannes Film Festival following a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in France.

The New York-based movie maker also praised France for having overwhelmingly voted against against a far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in presidential elections this month.

"I've never felt that the French people in any way were anti-Semitic. I know a number of French Jewish people who live in France who certainly do not feel this way," he told reporters.

"I don't think a boycott is in order," he said. The American Jewish Congress, a powerful lobby group, had taken out a series of adverts in Los Angeles comparing modern-day France to the World War II-era Vichy regime.