Lankan film surprise award winner at Dubai
Director Salinda Perera’s film Dheevari (Fisherman’s Daughter) set
among the needy fishing community was a surprise award winner, having
collected the most votes from viewers attending the Dubai Film Festival.
This is the only non-Arab film to win an award at the recently
concluded Dubai International Film Festival. This is because Dubai’s
Muhr Awards are open only to Arab filmmakers.
This year, Dubai instituted the People’s Choice Award for which the
public votes for their favourite film. Perera was told on the last day
to attend the evening event, which gave him his first inkling that he
would be on stage as an award winner.
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A scene from Dheevari |
The director said the film was shot in 1994, but financial
constraints led him to complete it 11 years later. “The negative itself
is that old, which has muted its colours and tones,” Perera said.
Set in Sri Lanka of the 70s, Dheevari follows Valli, now no longer a
child, and therefore forced to leave the missionary orphanage where she
was raised. Fearful of an unknown life ahead, she reluctantly returns to
her native fishing village to live with her aunt and uncle. Earlier,
Valli’s father had been denied his own boat by the powerful mudalali,
the fish-trading village chief.
Not to be cowed down, he fashioned his own boat to make his living,
but both he and Valli’s mother perished at sea.
The educated and protected Valli initially feels out of place in the
rough, earthy life she must adjust to. She learns fast and becomes an
asset to her family, warding off the predatory men around her.
She balks at the inequities of her new life, especially prejudices
against women. She questions the fisher community’s submission to the
traders who exploit them and their belief in self-defeating
superstition.
They in turn see her as a bad omen, saying that her parent’s defiance
led to their death at sea. To them, a woman’s place is on land and never
with men out at sea.
With mechanised fishing boats being introduced in Sri Lanka, Valli
shrewdly sees the advantages in Government incentives offered to
fishermen.
She urges her uncle and his mate to buy their own boat as a way out
of feudal control. To help her, fellow fisherman Kiera uses foolhardy
methods to raise quick money for which he is shot and killed by the
police.
To pay for Kiera’s funeral, Valli takes a job as a domestic in the
spacious home of the mudalali, whose young son both admires and covets
her. She becomes the pillar of the house with each member treating her
with affection and regard.
Her brief respite when she gives into the advances of the young son
are shattered when he marries the rich girl his family has found for
him.
Valli returns to her village determined to blend with its people and
improve their lot.
She leads them to a more independent life by opposing their beliefs
and the conniving traders.
Present in Dubai was actress Sangeetha Weeraratne, who plays the role
of Valli with compelling subtlety and confidence.
Perera told the packed house in his post-screening discussion how he
was fortunate to get the best in Sri Lanka’s towering acting talent to
take on key roles in the film.
They lend a powerful realism to the film’s narrative and its visual
and visceral immediacy. |
