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by E.M.G. Edirisinghe

In the annals of Sri Lankan cinema, Dr. Lester James Peries is the immaculate icon of cinema art. Unique he is, out of the shores of Sri Lanka, her cinema is synonymous with Lester James Peries. that is to which singular elevation and magnitude, the film personality of Lester has risen. Any student of Sri Lankan cinema which is mostly Sinhala cinema, endeavouring to focus on his works will endear himself to the need to bring Lester into limelight from whatever perspective he intends to evaluate his contribution to the art of the cinema I stretch here to throw some light on his achievements of honour in the sphere of international cinema which he gathered for his motherland.

Lester is the first-ever filmmaker to have put Sri Lanka on the map of international cinema, an accomplishment which brought international recognition and accolades to his island home as early as 1956. BAW Jayamanne who changed his audio-visual residence on stage to screen in 1947, is bestowed with rare honour of being the pioneer to bring cinema within the agenda of people's entertainment format. However, Lester is the accredited filmmaker who pioneered a path to find a cinematic medium to develop truly a national cinema that we could be proud of here or away.

The year 1956 is clearly a watershed in the cultural history of Sri Lanka. It was the year in which several landmarks in varied fields of art such as drama (Maname), dancing (Karadiya), poetry (Komala Rekha), fiction (Viragaya) and cinema (Rekhawa) left life-time imprints which inspired the artists as well as the connoisseurs, and spurred a wave of renaissance. It was Lester who took the bold step of deviating from the overbearing influence of South Indian model upon Sinhala cinema. With the Rekhawa, Lester became not only a pioneer but a tutor, mentor and a visionary as well.

Lester's initial fascination and inevitable exposure to world cinema while he was in London working at the London office of Times of Ceylon, formed the ideal background for reshaping and reframing the future of Sinhala cinema.

What he launched with Rekhawa is the vision of a young man with experience and trust built on learning from world cinema with a strong sense of the language of cinema and with pervasive imaginative potential augmented by a capacity for analytical understanding of national psyche.

Rekhawa took the average Sri Lankan filmgoer who was with a South Indian flavour by surprise and total indifference to what Lester presented because it did not yield him a story with conflict and glamour to suit his taste. However history is rewritten today for everyone to talk about Rekhawa which impressed a turning point in Sri Lankan cinema.

Beside carving a niche for Sri Lanka in the global film scene, he himself set on a career totals devoted for cinema.

He moved Sinhala cinema away from what the well-known film critic Jayawilal Wilegoda described as the thirteenth language of Indian cinema. It laid the foundation for the birth of such films as Kurulu Bedda, Parasathu Mal, Sath Samudura, Samaa etc. in the later years.

Rekhawa represented Sri Lanka (Ceylon) at several international film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival (1957), Karlovy Film Festival (1957), Edinburgh Film Festival (1958) and Stratford Film Festival (1958). This path-breaking film journeyed further and earned commercial releases in English, Russian, Czech, German and French languages. Prior to his capture of Sri Lanka in the picture of international cinema, Lester was already an internationally known filmmaker through his acclaimed experimental films he made while he was in London, which incidentally the precursor to his career in feature films. His original interest in journalism faded with his rising obsession in cinema.

His first-ever cinematic creation Soliloquy (1950), a 20 minute work, was an avant garde effort. It ended up being the winner of the Mini-Cinema Challenge Cup for showing the greatest technical proficiency. It was awarded by the Institute of Amateur and Experimental Filmmakers Festival held in England. Award of a prize for his maiden effort was a reflection of what lied ahead in cinema for him. Honour was conferred for its 'cleverly contrived chaos'. It explains his innate aesthetic and cinematic bent. Incidentally this award was well received by the Sri Lankan reading community, and it also aroused a keen interest in the Amateur Cine World Magazine published in England. Structurally it demonstrated the conceptual and aesthetic depth with a poetic touch that was what his cinematic works were going to be.

Once again he won the Amateur Cine World Silver plaque in England for his next film Farewell to Childhood (1950). Based on his own story, it was about a girl who attained puberty which the others noticed, and through whom she was made to realise that she was no more a child. A silent film it was, it won the award for one of the ten best films of the year (1950).

Then in 1952, Lester left London and the Times to join the Government Film Unit where he started his career with a documentary titled Conquest in the Dry Zone which eventually won a diploma of honour at the Venice International Film Festival held in 1954.

Rekhawa was a huge commercial flop, and Lester was in the wilderness for 4 years. Learning from what exactly the taste of the Sri Lankan film-goer was, in 1969, he made Sandesaya blending art and cinematic skill with elements of entertainment. Multiple cheer he earned abroad for Rekhawa was far in contrast with the cold reception it received at home. However Sandesaya was a tremendous commercial success. Thus with his first two feature films, Lester drove home to the audience that he had the capacity, learning and talent to reach them both as an artist and an entertainer. Although Sandesaya failed to penetrate the elite audience in international film festivals, it brought the local audience much closer to his heart.

In the backdrop complex nature of national cinema, four years later in 1964, Lester shone in full cinematic glow with the glitter of internationally acclaimed masterpiece Gam Peraliya which made several huge strides in international cinema. It was the winner of both the Grand Prix (The Golden Peacock) awarded for the best film at the International Film Festival held in 1965 and the critics award at the same film festival held in New Delhi. In the same year, it won the Gold Head of Palenque at the Eighth World Review of Film Festivals held in Maxico. Most remarkable of this film is its perfect rhythm, extremely economical use of dialogues and the poetic capture of the sensitive rustic life and its quiet natural virgin environment in elegiac mood unsurpassed in the whole of the 56 years of Sinhala cinema. The images were so delicate and delectable, it could have made the same impact, even if it had been silent. While Rekhawa kindled dainty experience in the Sinhala filmgoer, Gam Peraliya painted an intellectual background within which to view and appreciate Sinhala cinema.

Up to then, Sri Lanka, to most of the foreign audiences was only either a part of the Indian subcontinent or the country which produced the first woman Prime Minister, suddenly became familiar to a wider spectrum of intellectuals associated with cinema. Lester's Ran Salu (1967) is work that touches the spiritual freedom into which one wanders in answer to chores and remorse arising in household life. It however, failed to attract much international recognition, may be owing to its religious theme which they would have interpreted to mean to runaway from problems. However, it had screenings at Cork (1967), Vallodolid (1968) and at the Delhi Film Festival (1969). Also, it won a citation in the "Gandhi Award" category at the same festival. Program report of Radio Telefis Eirean Audience Research Service it as a disclosure of human expose of universal theme. It showed a strong appeal to 40% of the viewers.

Golu Hadawatha, Lester's best box-office hit was the Sri Lankan entry at the International Film Festival held in New Delhi in 1968. and it won the CIDALK award for itself and for Lester's total work in cinema. It was an attempt to penetrate into the inner communication of teenage love. It is generally commended for carrying the most complete plot of all Lester films.

Tissa Abeysekera considers Nidhanaya (1971) as Lester's best feature where his ingenuity as cine-artist comes fully alive. It was the Sri Lankan nominee at the Venice International Film Festival which was selected for screening at the critics section, too. In fact, Tissa stretching his view says that Lester should have gone along the cinematic rhythm he discovered and affectively applied in this film.

Nidhanaya won the Silver Lion of St. Mark at the Venice International Film Festival held in 1972. At the London Film Festival it was selected as one of the most outstanding films of 1972. It is a magnificent film with an unusual rhythm different from what Lester had been using in his previous films. Adding to Lester's laurels, Nidhanaya was placed as one of the thirteen best films of Asia of the 20th century, at the fourth Pusan Korean Film Festival held in 1999.

Based on Leonard Woolf's Village in the Jungle, Beddegama (1981) was selected for screening at the Cannes International Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight Selection category. La Monde carried a lengthy enthusiastic review of this film though it was harshly greeted with critical onslaught at home.

However it was purchased for German and French television broadcasting which itself is an international recognition for a Sinhala film.

In 1978, Lester won the AKHNATON prize awarded for the best Third World film at the Cairo International Film Festival for his film Ahasin Polowata. At Cannes Film Festival held in 1982, Kali Yugaya the second of his trilogy was recognized in the Directors' Fortnight Selection. Last of the trilogy Yuganthaya represented Sri Lanka at the Moscow International Film Festival held in 1985. Pinhamy, Lester's only children's film succeeded in winning the first prize in the children's film category of the Moscow International Film Festival held in 1985. Further, it won the Pravda special award as well.

Second half of the 20th century passed into history with Lester dominating the international film image of Sri Lanka. We cannot recall the past without seeing Lester presiding over it. He had been honoured here and abroad for his contribution to cinema, to Asian cinema in particular. A life totally dedicated to enrich cinema art and to elevate the taste for art, he was voted in 1986 as one of the best five filmmakers by the International Film Guide Publishers of UK. In 1985, the University of Colombo conferred on him the Degree of Doctor of Letters for his invaluable contribution to cinema art. It was Lester who pioneered the transformation of Sinhala cinema into an art which the current crop of young filmmakers are eager to reap with an eye on international cinema wherein lies the recognition and elation of being an artist.

In 1997, the Government of France conferred the honour of the "Lgion d'Honneur" on him in recognition of his continuous impressive role in the art of the cinema. He reached the pinnacle of international fame in his cherished field of art which he fostered with dedication for over five decades, when the lifetime award of Golden Peacock was conferred on him at the Delhi International Film Festival held in 2000. In the following year, he was felicitated with the honour of Golden Lotus at Deauville, France for his contribution to Asian cinema and then again in the year 2000, he was the first recipient of the Asian Film Culture award accorded to him "for his outstanding contribution to Asian cinema". Lester's unquenchable thirst to feed the global film audience with truly what is our national cinema breaking away totally from the clutches of South Indian or North Indian cinematic flavour is a mission he undertook with a vision and commitment. Lester always touched on the sentimental and emotional impact innate in sexual interaction leading to intimate and complex human relations. He, in his cinematic presentations, took the subtle intricate human and social interrelationship prevailing in the Sri Lankan cultural and spiritual fabric to the film audiences in the West and the East.

Some critics are inclined to compare Lester and Stayajith Ray. One may draw a parallel, but an attempt to find similarities between the two will do injustice to both. However both Lester and Ray are unique in one way. Both of them painted their respective countries on the canvas of international cinema with their very first cinematic creations. They have their feet rooted to the soil of their birth and are proud of their respective cultural heritage. The quiet slow compact visual rhythm they followed in their works facilitated both the artiste and the viewer to get into the mood of the character. The character, not the actor stood out on the canvas. Anyway Lester is Lester and Ray is Ray.

Finally, Lester received the UNESCO Eellini Gold medal for his career in cinema Wekande Valawwa was selected for screening at the 56th Cannes International Film Festival (2003).

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