Rebel with a cause

Amalshan GUNARATHNE

Nourishing the Sri Lankan silver screen with his radical authenticity, he fuelled an artistic transformation that paved the way for a new tide of aesthetic cinema. For that reason he was called as a ‘Rebel with a Cause’. His unique cinematic expressions had the capacity to capture and recreate social realties of his times in a manner that would leave the audience with a sense of aesthetic enlightenment. Successfully representing Sri Lankan cinema at Moscow and Los Angeles film festivals, he went on to compose a lineage of critically acclaimed films that inspired a refreshing change in Sinhala cinema. His feature films, One League of Sky (Ahas Gawwa), Coming of Age (Eya Den Loku Lamayek), Ponmani, The Wasps are Here (Bambaru Avith), On The Run (Paradige) and Old Soldier (Soldadu Unnehe) won hearts of many and earned him great critical praise. The creator of such cinematic masterpieces, the veteran film-maker Dharmasena Pathiraja is our Encounter of the Week.

Q: Can you go back down memory lane and recall some of your precious memories about how you started your journey as a filmmaker?

First feature film I did was One League of Sky (Ahasgawwa). It took me four years to complete that film. I didn’t have enough money to produce the film, so I got financial backing from some of my close friends. Those days we had a very strong film society movement, headed by people like Regi Siriwardana, Gamini Haththotuwagama. Also while I was studying at Peradeniya University, we had an active film society where we studied new trends in films, we studied French, Polish, Hungarian films and that initial background played a major role at paving my way to my success.

Q: When making films, dramas and other such works of art, artistes often strive to express radical, ideological messages through their creations. Is it possible to bring out that kind of message through a medium like cinema?

Artist is not a messenger. True, it is artist’s responsibility to penetrate in to issues of the society that he lives, do indepth analysis and recreate and reconstruct the reality of the society that he lives. And when they depict certain social realities, a serious work of art often end up becoming an anti-establishment work. But it shouldn’t be direct.

It is not about making direct statements. Whatever that the artist is trying to convey, has to be conveyed aesthetically. The artist job is not to make people suffer. The audience should get a sense of fulfillment and a sense of aesthetic pleasure. It doesn’t mean you have to put everything to please people. These days, directors look at things only from entertainment perspective, but what they do is not art.

Q: You have extensively studied the works of film-makers such Solana, Polanski, Jean Luc Goddard, etc, how did their work inspired your creative work?

Scenes from Ahas Gawwa

Film is an inter-textual medium. That intertextuality does inspire you. Your inspirations do have something to do with other films. I was close to east European Cinema and I was influenced by the style and the technique used by those directors, but ideologically I was different. So when I made Ahasgawwa, I wanted to explore issues of our society, may be I was inspired by their technique and adapted some of those in to that film, but I didn’t adapt their films and the story was mine.

Q: You have represented Sri Lanka successfully at many esteemed international film festivals. But some of the recent films that successfully represented Sri Lanka at international film festivals have either been censored or banned here in Sri Lanka, your thoughts on the dilemma.

True, film-makers like Vimukuthi, Ashoka Handagama and Prasanna Vithanage are recognized internationally. But sadly most of their creations are censored or banned here in Sri Lanka. Even films like Prasanna Vithanage’s Purahanda Kaluwara had trouble before screening. Internationally acclaimed films like Aksharaya, Sulanga Enu Pinisa were also banned. Vimukthi makes films only for international audience now. Some say, those directors make films only for festivals. But if they can make films for good festivals and compete with international directors, it is a good thing. You have to compete with them and learn, that is how you can develop cinema.

Q: Express your thoughts on the current trends of local cinema

One of the major trends that we had in recent times was war films. The way I see it, those are not anti-war films, they are anti-national films. All they do is glorify war. After winning of the war whole line of films came up which revolves around this theme. It is fine to do a film based on various issues arisen by war, but it should not be used as a medium to glorify war. These people are taking war as narrative and are creating a Sinhala Buddhist ideology. I think mentally and emotionally they are trying to militarize the society which is not good.

The other major trend was the big-budget films that revolve around Buddhist, historical storylines. Those films are bit like Vesak Pandals. They have nice visuals, lights and glamour, so because of that people go to watch those films. The storyline is very simple and the theme revolves around something as simple as the conflict between good and bad. People feel good about watching these films, it is bit like going to see a Vesak Thoran and listening to its narrative, so to get that same viewing pleasure, they go and watch them. But these films can’t be considered as good works of art. It is fine to recreate films based on historical stories. Even Sarachchandra’s Maname was adapted from a Jathaka story. But it was a good drama with great aesthetic value and it became a timeless creation. Same cannot be said for recent adaptations.

Q: What should we do to create a new breed of Sri Lankan Cinematographers that could take Sri Lankan cinema forward?

Films studies are not properly taught here. The film studies can’t be done in a class room environment. You need practical experience and that practical exposure should be given to students.

And also we don’t have enough good tutors who can teach the subject. These days they have diplomas to teach film studies everywhere, but those are there only to earn money. There is demand for such courses, people want to learn, but we don’t have a capable system that can facilitate such programmes.