Sri Lankan filmmakers wait for peace dividend

Sri Lanka’s film industry is still struggling to find its footing, although it has a history of more than six decades. A particularly poor last 10 years has thrown local cinema on a downward spiral, except for a few films that made their presence felt at international film festivals.

Theatres recorded 5.5 million admissions in 2010 compared to 17 million in 2001.

Although the Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009, with only 168 theatres left in the country, the film industry is far from recovery.

Reasons behind this decline range from a lack of government support to the absence of an organised film industry in the country. Sri Lanka’s National Film Corporation (NFC), which was instrumental in bringing about a boom in local cinema during the 1970s by handing out interest-free loans to film-makers, had stopped funding films by the end of the war.

“The Sri Lankan film industry had been heavily subsidised. Film-makers failed to adjust when the subsidy was stopped,” says Sri Lankan film-maker Prasanna Vithanage.

The industry’s woes can be traced back to 2001, when the Sri Lankan government privatised film import and distribution. This led to reduced distribution of films, resulting in hundreds of cinemas closing down over the last decade. The few that remain are not equipped for digital projection. Internationally renowned Sri Lankan film-makers such as Vithanage and Vimukthi Jayasundara are unable to release films in their home country.

“Every film has to be converted to 35mm print to release it, which is very discouraging for young film-makers. I shoot on digital and don’t want to convert as I have to spend a lot of money on it,” says Jayasundara, who has not yet released his latest film Mushrooms, which premiered at Cannes in 2011. However, the film, which was sold internationally by EastWest Filmdistribution, received a limited theatrical release this year in France.

“I made a DCP [digital cinema package] of my film but most of these theatres can’t show DCP,” echoes Vithanage, who has not been able to release his latest film With You, Without You, which premiered at Montreal World Film Festival last year.

The Sri Lankan government is understood to be addressing the issue, but results will not be seen for some time. “The government has set up a committee that is accepting recommendations on digitisation of theatres, but the process will take at least two years,” says NFC general manager (production) Kassapa Senarath.

Film-makers rue the lack of a professional film industry in a country that produces only about 20 films every year. “Most films are produced by private equity investors who earn tax benefits on it. There are just one or two professionally run production houses that one can think of,” says local producer Rasitha Jinasena. Arthouse film-makers such as Vithanage and Jayasundara often rely on Europe for development and production funding.

Films that do reach theatres are usually made on a modest budget of around $70,000-$150,000 but rarely recover their investment. The most popular Sri Lankan film of all time, Siri Parakum, released this May, has achieved the rare feat of recording 3 million admissions to date. But most local films do not score more than 500,000 theatrical admissions.

Even the Sri Lankan diaspora is divided along ethnic lines that prevent film-makers from tapping into them for revenue. “The Sinhala-speaking audiences wouldn’t go to watch a Tamil film and vice versa,” explains Vithanage. He says that even the neighbouring country of India does not welcome Sri Lankan films after the war, ruling out the possibility of exploiting the large Tamil-speaking population in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Television rights are not a source of revenue either as channels offer free advertising as barter instead of money.

The post-war years have seen the rise of historical dramas, which often attempt to glorify the history of the island nation. The trend was started in 2008 by Aba, a film based on the legend of King Pandukabhaya, directed by Jackson Anthony. It was followed by Chandran Rutnam and Saman Weeraman’s Sri Siddhartha Gauthama, on the life of Buddha, which became extremely popular with audiences. Siri Parakum, directed by Somaratne Dissanayake and based on the life of King Parakramabahu II, has been running successfully for six months.

Vithanage explains the phenomenon: “When ‘historical’ films are made, the education ministry gives official permission to schools to take children out for these films. The 4 million school children in Sri Lanka have become a big target audience for historical films.” Sri Lanka has also seen a surge in nationalistic films since the end of the civil war. “When the subsidy stopped, another kind of unofficial encouragement - not based on merit - came from the government for pro-war films,” says Vithanage.

Another genre that dominates the Sri Lankan box office are films with children as protagonists against the backdrop of the civil war, which veer more towards arthouse than commercial sensibilities. “Arthouse movies in Sri Lanka are those that do not have songs and dance. They resemble the children’s films of Iran,” says Jayasundara.

Most local films are made in Sinhala, the language spoken by the majority in Sri Lanka. In rare cases, a Tamil film such as Asoka Handagama’s Ini Avan (2012) emerges as a hit. Distant cousin Bollywood continues to enjoy popularity but not in theatres. Cheap pirated DVDs constitute the biggest market for Bollywood films in Sri Lanka.

Censorship also looms large over the industry, especially for films that undermine the Sri Lankan army’s victory in the war. Recently the Sri Lankan government exerted pressure on Nepali authorities to withdraw three Sri Lankan documentaries scheduled to screen at the Film Southasia film festival in Kathmandu.

Similarly, the government banned Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s Flying Fish, set against the backdrop of the civil war, when it played at a festival organised by the French embassy in Colombo this July; the authorities also halted the festival. “The Sri Lankan army has won the war. So if you say something against them, you’re their enemy. If you’re making a film about the civil war now, you’re provoking them,” says Jayasundara.

With so many factors working against them, many local film-makers leave the industry after making just one film. Even established directors are losing heart - Dissanayake, who has delivered two of the biggest hits in Sri Lankan cinema (Sooriya Arana and Siri Parakum), has announced he will quit film-making unless the government withdraws a new regulation that limits to 35 the number of copies released at the first showing of a film.

At present, the only silver lining for Sri Lankan cinema is the film-makers who continue to make films against all odds; films that screen at international film festivals and win awards.

Talent that travels: four of Sri Lanka’s leading film-makers

Asoka Handagama

One of Sri Lanka’s best-known and most controversial directors, Handagama has credits including A Letter Of Fire (2005), which was banned in Sri Lanka, and children’s film Vidhu (2010). His most recent film, Ini Avan, which he made in Tamil despite being a Sinhalese director, won a special mention at Tokyo International Film Festival in 2012 and performed well at the Sri Lankan box office.

Prasanna Jayakody

An emerging talent of Sri Lankan cinema, Jayakody won the Silver Pyramid at Cairo International Film Festival in 2006 for his debut feature Sankara. The film also won the NETPAC award and best debut director prize at the International Film Festival of Kerala. His second film, Karma, was screened at Rotterdam in 2011.

Vimukthi Jayasundara

Jayasundara won the Camera d’Or at Cannes with his debut feature The Forsaken Land in 2005 - a first for any Sri Lankan film-maker. His second film, Between Two Worlds, premiered in competition at Venice in 2009, while his third feature Mushrooms (Chatrak) screened in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2011.

Prasanna Vithanage

One of the pioneers of 1990s new wave cinema in Sri Lanka and a prolific film-maker, Vithanage has impressed the festival circuit. His latest title, With You, Without You, had its world premiere at the World Film Festival in Montreal in 2012 and is nominated for best film at this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. He is also a producer on Uberto Pasolini’s Machan, which screened at Venice in 2008.