‘Gamini’ showcases how Forces won unwinnable war

Nethali Struys

A first film directed by a serviceman, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, ‘Gamani’ is based on the development of Civil Defence Force (CDF). The film narrates how the newly recruited security officers defended their village bravely against an organized attack by the LTTE.

“The story is based on a true incident, where civilians were massacred by the LTTE. The film is to promote the way the security forces won the war in three years which was deemed unwinnable in 30 years time”, said Provincial Minister Udaya Gammanpila.

Parliamentarian J.R.P. Suriyapperuma point’s out that if the villagers has left their villages the terrorists would have penetrated further into the country and the government would have faced more difficulties. Thereford the public should be thankful to the communities living in the threatened villages.

He further said that the one important fact in winning the war is that public and the government were able to separately identify the innocent Tamil community from the LTTE terrorists. This helps in gaining the confidence of the Tamil community in trusting the government.

These views were given at a press conference held at the Information Department recently.

Somarathne Dissanayake said that the film is produced in a very advanced manner and is proud of the fact that a fresher in the film industry was capable of bringing out such a quality product.

Agnidiga University Senior Lecturer Amarasiri Wikramarathne as a person who has lived in a threatened village said that if some one is of the view that the film has too much violence in it, it is a wrong notion. He pointed out that the situation was worse than shown in the film. The film shows only a very little of what really happened but, this gives a fair picture to the world.

A war film culture should be built in Sri Lanka so as to reveal to the world, post war Sri Lanka and the government’s is humanitarian mission. ‘Gamani’ unfolds in a border village in Ampara which was constantly attacked by terrorists.

On a night when a pirith was held for a dead child in the village, the terrorists planned a massacre.

And when the villagers were returning to their homes, a brutal attack was carried out and most of them were murdered.

The screenplay is written and directed by Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara. The film is produced by Upali Rajapaksa with a team of top class artistes in the art department.